Leptin is a pleiotropic cytokine/hormone that has been shown to primarily play a critical role on food intakeand energy expenditure but is also a participant in functions of the immune system, including that of antigenpresenting cells (APCs). Of the three cell populations that constitute APCs, only one, dendritic cells (DC)have the ability to initiate naive T cell responses. Our goal is to assess the potential role of leptin on DCfunction particularly when signaling through the leptin receptor is compromised, such as in patients afflictedwith obesity or Type II Diabetes. We have found, analyzing DC isolated and enriched from spleens of leptindeficientmice (Lepob), that some, but not all, of DC functions are affected when compared to splenic DC fromcontrol C57BI/6 mice. Preliminary data has shown that DC do express the long isoform of the leptin receptorand therefore can be responsive to leptin. Leptin-deficiency does not alter DC phenotype, DC activation byinflammatory stimuli, or processing of antigen; however, leptin-deficiency does affect DC ability to acquireantigen and to effectively activate T cells. We have also found that the addition of exogenous leptin to bonemarrow-derived DC alters the morphology of the DC, promoting more and longer extensions and alsoenhances DC survival. We hypothesize that leptin signaling is reduced in DC from leptin-deficient mice dueto a reduction in leptin receptor density and that normally, leptin enhances DC survival and dendriteformation thereby enhancing APC - T cell interactions leading to optimal T cell activation. We propose toaddress our hypothesis with three specific aims.
Aim 1 will determine the relative expression levels of theong isoform of the leptin receptor on DC using standard Western blot analysis and Q-PCR.
Aim 2 willascertain if leptin enhances DC survival when in co-culture with T cells by assessing the induction of DCapoptosis and will ascertain if leptin enhances DC - T cell conjugate formation by a number of microscopytechniques. Lastly, Aim 3 will evaluate the induction of signaling events in DC by leptin. More specifically,the induction of pro-survival signaling pathways will be evaluated biochemically and the induction of actin reorganizationwill be assessed via microscopy and biochemical assays. Considering the potential influence ofeptin on DC maturation and function (as suggested by our preliminary data), resistance to leptin signalingtiat occurs in the obese and in type 2 diabetes may compromise DC function and thus T cell-mediatedmmunity underscoring the clinical significance of understanding the role of leptin in immunity.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
Type
Minority Biomedical Research Support - MBRS (S06)
Project #
2S06GM008012-37
Application #
7282243
Study Section
Minority Programs Review Committee (MPRC)
Project Start
2007-06-01
Project End
2011-05-31
Budget Start
2007-06-01
Budget End
2008-05-31
Support Year
37
Fiscal Year
2007
Total Cost
$176,380
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Texas El Paso
Department
Type
DUNS #
132051285
City
El Paso
State
TX
Country
United States
Zip Code
79968
Rocha-Gutiérrez, Beatriz A; Lee, Wen-Yee; Shane Walker, W (2016) Mass balance and mass loading of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in a tertiary wastewater treatment plant using SBSE-TD-GC/MS. Water Sci Technol 73:302-8
Vargas-Medrano, Javier; Sierra-Fonseca, Jorge A; Plenge-Tellechea, Luis F (2016) 1,2-Dichlorobenzene affects the formation of the phosphoenzyme stage during the catalytic cycle of the Ca(2+)-ATPase from sarcoplasmic reticulum. BMC Biochem 17:5
Buhaya, Munir H; Galvan, Steven; Maldonado, Rosa A (2015) Incidence of Trypanosoma cruzi infection in triatomines collected at Indio Mountains Research Station. Acta Trop 150:97-9
Vasquez, Miguel A; Iniguez, Eva; Das, Umashankar et al. (2015) Evaluation of ?,?-unsaturated ketones as antileishmanial agents. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 59:3598-601
Dagda, Ruben K; Gasanov, Sardar E; Zhang, Boris et al. (2014) Molecular models of the Mojave rattlesnake (Crotalus scutulatus scutulatus) venom metalloproteinases reveal a structural basis for differences in hemorrhagic activities. J Biol Phys 40:193-216
Serna, Carylinda; Lara, Joshua A; Rodrigues, Silas P et al. (2014) A synthetic peptide from Trypanosoma cruzi mucin-like associated surface protein as candidate for a vaccine against Chagas disease. Vaccine 32:3525-32
Rodrigues, Marcio L; Nakayasu, Ernesto S; Almeida, Igor C et al. (2014) The impact of proteomics on the understanding of functions and biogenesis of fungal extracellular vesicles. J Proteomics 97:177-86
Rico-Martínez, Roberto; Walsh, Elizabeth J (2013) Sexual Reproductive Biology of a Colonial Rotifer Sinantherina socialis (Rotifera: Monogononta): Do mating strategies vary between colonial and solitary rotifer species? Mar Freshw Behav Physiol 46:419-430
Jin, Seoweon; Staniswalis, Joan G; Mallawaarachchi, Indika (2013) Principal Differential Analysis with a Continuous Covariate: Low Dimensional Approximations for Functional Data. J Stat Comput Simul 83:
Dagda, Ruben K; Gasanov, Sardar; De La Oiii, Ysidro et al. (2013) Genetic Basis for Variation of Metalloproteinase-Associated Biochemical Activity in Venom of the Mojave Rattlesnake (Crotalus scutulatus scutulatus). Biochem Res Int 2013:251474

Showing the most recent 10 out of 139 publications