Lymphocytes within lymphoid tissues are regulated by a vascular-stromal compartment comprised of blood vessels, lymphatic sinuses, and non-vascular mesenchymal reticular cells, and understanding the functions and regulation of this compartment can have implications for better understanding and treating lymphoproliferative and autoimmune diseases. We have recently shown that fibroblastic reticular cells (FRCs) are in distinct functional states at homeostasis and in inflamed lymph nodes. Our long-term goal is to understand other functional features of the vascular-stromal compartment in inflamed nodes, how these features contribute to regulating immune responses, and how these features in inflamed nodes are induced. Here, we show that FRCs upregulate CCL2 during a phase of the immune response that corresponds to plasma cell accumulation. FRCs express CCL2 at high levels in the vascular-rich medulla and vascular-rich regions of the T zone, which are also the sites of plasma cell localization. We show that CCL2 limits plasma cell survival and that vascular permeability may play a role in inducing the FRC functional phenotype in these vascular-rich regions. We propose to test the hypothesis that, during this phase of the immune response, features of vascular-rich microenvironments regulate plasma cell function and vascular activity regulates FRC functional phenotype in these areas.
Our aims are 1) to understand how CCL2 regulates plasma cell survival and 2) to understand how vascular activity contributes to modulating FRC functional phenotype. The results from this proposal will provide new insights into lymphoid tissue vascular-stromal function and regulation, plasma cell regulation, and a potential link between cardiovascular health and the immune system. This link is especially relevant for autoimmune diseases such as lupus that are characterized both by vascular dysfunction and immune system dysfunction marked in part by plasma cell accumulation

Public Health Relevance

Lymph nodes are sites of immune responses in health and disease. Lymph node fibroblasts can regulate the activity of the immune cells and here we ask how the fibroblasts regulate immune cells and how they are in turn regulated by blood vessel permeability. Understanding how lymph nodes function as a tissue will help us understand how to control pathologic immune responses in autoimmune diseases such as lupus.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01AI079178-07
Application #
9607980
Study Section
Cellular and Molecular Immunology - B Study Section (CMIB)
Program Officer
Vazquez-Maldonado, Nancy
Project Start
2010-02-01
Project End
2022-11-30
Budget Start
2018-12-01
Budget End
2019-11-30
Support Year
7
Fiscal Year
2019
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Hospital for Special Surgery
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10021
Shipman, William D; Chyou, Susan; Ramanathan, Anusha et al. (2018) A protective Langerhans cell-keratinocyte axis that is dysfunctional in photosensitivity. Sci Transl Med 10:
Shipman, William D; Dasoveanu, Dragos C; Lu, Theresa T (2017) Tertiary lymphoid organs in systemic autoimmune diseases:  pathogenic or protective? F1000Res 6:196
Dasoveanu, Dragos C; Shipman, William D; Chia, Jennifer J et al. (2016) Regulation of Lymph Node Vascular-Stromal Compartment by Dendritic Cells. Trends Immunol 37:764-777
Chia, Jennifer J; Zhu, Tong; Chyou, Susan et al. (2016) Dendritic cells maintain dermal adipose-derived stromal cells in skin fibrosis. J Clin Invest 126:4331-4345
Chia, Jennifer J; Lu, Theresa T (2015) Update on macrophages and innate immunity in scleroderma. Curr Opin Rheumatol 27:530-6
Kumar, Varsha; Dasoveanu, Dragos C; Chyou, Susan et al. (2015) A dendritic-cell-stromal axis maintains immune responses in lymph nodes. Immunity 42:719-30
Benahmed, Fairouz; Chyou, Susan; Dasoveanu, Dragos et al. (2014) Multiple CD11c+ cells collaboratively express IL-1? to modulate stromal vascular endothelial growth factor and lymph node vascular-stromal growth. J Immunol 192:4153-63
Lu, Theresa T (2012) Dendritic cells: novel players in fibrosis and scleroderma. Curr Rheumatol Rep 14:30-8
Benahmed, Fairouz; Ely, Scott; Lu, Theresa T (2012) Lymph node vascular-stromal growth and function as a potential target for controlling immunity. Clin Immunol 144:109-16
Chyou, Susan; Tian, Sha; Ekland, Eric H et al. (2012) Normalization of the lymph node T cell stromal microenvironment in lpr/lpr mice is associated with SU5416-induced reduction in autoantibodies. PLoS One 7:e32828

Showing the most recent 10 out of 15 publications