Despite a number of strategies for controlling the high incidence of gonorrhea and the fact that an adequate treatment exists for the disease, the reported incidence is approximately one million cases a year. Control of this disease would be more successful if efforts were directed at understanding the interactions which occur between the gonococcus and the tissue it infects. It is the goal of the studies proposed in this application to understand the types of immune responses available in the human urogenital tract. To accomplish this, experiments will be performed on isolated human fallopian tubes in organ culture. Initially, studies to determine the cell types present (monocytes, T cells, B cells, null cells) and their functional capability will be carried out using uninfected fallopian tubes. Subsequently these same studies will be performed on organ cultures of fallopian tubes infected with Neisseria gonorrhoeae to determine what changes, if any, occur as a result of the infectious process. These series of experiments will provide a baseline of immune reactivity which will allow conclusions to be drawn concerning the types of responses which might be important in controlling gonococcal infection. Finally studies will be performed to determine if two recently described immunological mechanisms with activity against microorganisms might be involved in the local immune responses of the fallopian tube. Experiments are proposed which should allow a detection of antibody dependent cell mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) and natural killer (NK) cell activity. These studies should provide new information concerning the components of the gonococcal cell surface and their interaction with local host immune defense mechanisms.
| Cooper, M D; Rapp, J; Jeffery-Wiseman, C et al. (1990) Chlamydia trachomatis infection of human fallopian tube organ cultures. J Gen Microbiol 136:1109-15 |
| Cooper, M D; Moticka, E J (1989) Cellular immune responses during gonococcal and meningococcal infections. Clin Microbiol Rev 2 Suppl:S29-34 |
| Cooper, M D; Dever, C; Tempel, K et al. (1987) Characterization of lymphoid cells from the human fallopian tube mucosa. Adv Exp Med Biol 216A:387-94 |
| Cooper, M D; McGraw, P A; Melly, M A (1986) Localization of gonococcal lipopolysaccharide and its relationship to toxic damage in human fallopian tube mucosa. Infect Immun 51:425-30 |
| Cooper, M D; Jeffery, C (1985) Scanning and transmission electron microscopy of bacterial attachment to mucosal surfaces with particular reference to the human fallopian tube. Scan Electron Microsc :1183-90 |
