癌症生物学

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the intestinal tract and is primarily comprised of Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Several murine models that include both chemical induced and genetic models have been developed that mimic some aspects of either CD or UC. These models have been instrumental in our understanding of IBD. Of the chemical induced colitis models, dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) induced colitis model is a relatively simple and very widely used model of experimental colitis.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are characterized by chronic, progressive and relapsing inflammatory disorders. Existing evidence indicate that IBD is associated with a higher risk of developing CAC, which is directly related to the duration and extent of colitis. Thus, animal models have been developed to understand the biology of colitis and CAC. The most commonly used model of colitis is to treat with dextran sodium sulfate (DSS). DSS given in the drinking water is toxic to the colonic epithelial lining and induces bloody diarrhea, ulceration and inflammation, similar to colitis in IBD patients. To study CAC, DSS treatment is combined with a single intraperitoneal injection of the DNA alkylation reagent Azoxymethane (AOM).

Different vaccine and adjuvant combinations are known to rapidly induce antigen presenting cell (APC) maturation and pro-inflammatory cytokine and production, which in turn play an important role in the priming of antigen-specific T cells. Measuring cytokine production systemically in the serum fails to detect localized responses in the lymph nodes draining a subcutaneous immunization site. On the other hand, stimulating APC with vaccine formulations in vitro lacks the complexity of the lymph node microenvironment and the presence of other in vivo factors. Here we analyse cytokine production directly in vaccine draining lymph nodes (dLN) extracted early after in vivo vaccination. To do this we perform cytokine multiplex analysis of supernatants from whole dLN cell suspensions following a brief ex vivo incubation.