The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is a chromosomal region encoding molecules controlling adaptive immune response in vertebrates. In farm animals, many associations between MHC loci and productivity traits including disease susceptibility have been described. However, current knowledge about the structure and function of the MHC in domestic animals, especially sheep, is very limited. Characterization of the sheep MHC may potentially facilitate breeding for enhanced disease-resistant animals through use of marker assisted selection. The main aim of this project has been to provide insights into the organization of the genomic content of the central region of the sheep MHC. The work described herein has utilized subcloning of a sheep BAC genomic library in conjunction with DNA sequencing to generate a map of the central region of the sheep MHC covering ≈700 kbp. Within this map the relative order and identity of twenty five recognized loci were established. For some loci the intergenic distances were also determined. The final map is the most accurate map of this region reported to date and shows a high degree of similarity to the analogous region of the human MHC. This work has been published and a copy of the paper is included in Appendix 1. During the course of this work detailed genomic sequences were obtained for several sheep central region loci. Complete nucleotide sequences were generated for the complement factor B locus (CFB) and the TNFα locus and a comparative analysis of these sequences confirmed their homology with other vertebrate orthologues. Extensive partial sequences for complement components C2 and C4 were also obtained and reported to GenBank. / In addition, a previously identified short tandem repeat locus designated BfMs believed to be in the CFB locus was mapped to an intron within the adjacent SKI2VL locus. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified by analysing homologous sequences from a minimum of five individual sheep. In total 33 SNPs were discovered distributed over eleven distinct loci. Allele frequencies for SNPs from ten of these loci were determined and reported for a panel of 71 sheep comprising 58 unrelated sheep from the Rylington Merino flock plus a further 13 unrelated parental animals from a three generation half sibling sheep pedigree. The availability of an independently confirmed pedigree constructed from a three generation half sibling sheep family permitted the identification by deduction of central region MHC haplotypes based on a panel of SNPs derived from 10 loci. This is the first reporting of haplotypes covering this region of the sheep MHC. Analysis of SNP panel genotypes in the cohort of 71 unrelated sheep using the expectation maximization algorithm permitted the prediction of a group of approximately 20 haplotypes, which accounted for more than 90% of the expected haplotype distribution. Four of these predicted haplotypes were also present in the known haplotype cohort deduced from the sheep pedigree. Analysis of pairwise linkage disequilibrium between SNP loci in the cohort of 71 unrelated sheep showed a centre-most region displaying relatively high levels of linkage disequilibrium which was bounded by two regions displaying more variable linkage disequilibrium. / It is hypothesised that this mid region of the central region of the sheep MHC may be a block like structure characterized by low recombination similar to those that have been widely described in the human and mouse genomes. The discoveries reported in this thesis provide a more accurate and detailed description of the central region of the sheep MHC together with a panel of SNPs, which reflect the diversity of this important genomic region which is known to be associated with immune responsiveness. The description, for the first time, of central region haplotypes provides a practical means of seeking candidate loci associated with disease resistance and productivity traits. The application of molecular techniques will enhance the rate at which the genomic composition of this region is elucidated and the work described in this thesis will contribute to final characterization of this important complex in health and disease.

Artritis reumatoidea Juvenil (ARJ) es una enfermedad inflamatoria crónica, autoinmune que afecta a mas de una articulación en lugar y numero. Es una de las enfermedades más comunes en la consulta pediátrica reumatológica y una de las menos estudiadas desde el punto de vista inmunogenetico. En la literatura se ha reportado varias asociaciones de (HLA) Antigenos de Leucocitos Humanos y ARJ con diferentes grupos étnicos, sobre todo con los antigenos HLA clase II: HLA-DR1 y DR4 asociándolos con el subgrupo clínico poliarticularLo contrario a la arthritis reumatoidea del adulto, la ARJ presenta variante clinicas el cual la hace mas interesante desde el punto de vista genetico (fenotipo). Desde el punto de vista patogénesis se han encontrado varios posibles factores que podrían estar en parte, determinados por alteraciones a nivel trimolecular compuesto por un antigeno putativo, el receptor del linfocito T CD4+ y las moléculas HLA.Este estudio se realizo en un grupo de mestizos Colombianos el cual contiene una mezcla génica de amerindio, europea y africana que padecían de ARJ. Se estudio la asociación de los antigenos de leucocitos humanos HLA-DRB1 y HLA -DQB1 en 65 pacientes con ARJ y 65 controles sanos de Colombia En resumen, en este estudio lo hallazgos encontrados fueron la presencia de los alelos HLADRB1*1104 y DRB1*1602 asociados como marcadores de susceptibilidad y los alelos HLA-DRB1*1501 y HLA DRB1*1402 se comportaron como alelos asociados con protección. Al comparar las asociaciones entre alelos y los diferentes subgrupos clínicos se encontró asociación entre ARJ oligoarticular con HLA-DRB1* 1104, ARJ poliarticular se asoció con el alelo HLA-DRB1* 0404 y en el grupo sistémico, el alelo más expresado fue el HLA-DRB1*1602. La presencia de Factor Reumatoide estuvo asociado con los alelos HLA-DRB1*0407 y HLA-DRB1*1302. En el grupo de pacientes con ANA+ solo hubo significancia estadística para el HLA-DRB1* 0701. El subgrupo poliarticular mostró asociación con la secuencia aminoacidica 70 QRRAA74 el cual incluye los alelos HLA DRB1*04, 01 y 1402. Con relación a la asociación haplotipos y subgrupos clínicos, se destacan dos nuevos hallazgos de interés: ARJ oligoarticular se asoció con el haplotipo cacausoide DRB1*1104, DQB1*0301, y el haplotipo amerindio DRB1*1602, DQB1*0602, con AR sistémico. Es de resaltar que le alelos DRB1 de estos dos haplotipos comparten el epitope 70 DRRAA 74. La información obtenida en nuestros pacientes mestizos colombianos son relevante s e importantes por que desde el punto de vista molecular a nivel de presentación antigénica el aminoácido 70 en el motivo 67-73 podría estar activando las células TH1 o TH2 el cual estaría comprometida en la patogénesis de la enfermedad.Nuestros resultados sugieren que los estudios de asociación y susceptibilidad con enfermedades llevados a cabo en poblaciones mestizas, deben considerar la carga genética mixta de estos grupos, étnicos con el objeto de evitar factores de estratificación genética. Nuestros estudios muestran que utilizando técnicas de alta resolución para la tipificación de los alelos HLA-DRB1 y DQB1 serian de gran información para la detección de epitopes específicos de los alelos HLA DRB1 el cual estarían participando no solo en la susceptibilidad a desarrollar ARJ en estos pacientes mestizos, sino también contribuyen en la expresión clínica de la enfermedad. / Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis is the most prevalent pediatric rheumatic diagnosis among children. The term designates a group of diseases that have in common chronic idiopathic inflammation of one or more joints. Substantial evidence points to an autoimmune pathogenesisThe clinical features are paralleled by immunogenetic characteristics that have been found to involve primarily, the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). There are over 50 series reporting HLA associations in JRA. The class II genes, HLA-DR1 and HLA-DR4, have been reported to increase risk for polyarticular JRA in many populations. Contrary to JRA the adult rheumatoid arthritis (RA), JRA has certain clinical variants which make it more interesting from the genetic point of view (phenotypes). In its pathogenesis several factors have been identified, which as a whole would explain the onset and the perpetuation of the inflammatory response affecting joints and nearby tissue as well as its imminent destruction given no control of it as in the case in other autoimmune diseases. The disease pathogenesis can be determined by alterations at the trimolecular level formed by a putative antigen the lymphocyte T receptor and the MHC.We studied the association of human leukocyte antigen HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1 alleles and HLA haplotypes with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis in 65 patients and 65 controls from Colombia. The distribution of these alleles was examined in a group of Colombian mestizo children (genetic admixture of Amerindians, Europeans and Africans) suffering from clinically distinct JRA subsets in order Two alleles were associated with protection, HLA-DRB1*1501and HLA-DRB1*1402. HLA-DRB1*1602 was associated with susceptibility for systemic JRA and HLA-DRB1*1104 for pauciarticular JRA. The relationship between some HLA-DRB1 alleles and clinical features was also compared. The presence of rheumatic factor was associated with the alleles HLA-DRB1*0407 and HLA-DRB1*1302. There was also an association between HLA-DRB1*0701 with expressing ANA+. We found that in the expressed most commonly. In the polyarticular group, the alleles most frequently expressed were HLA-DRB1*0404. It is important to highlight that all the alleles linked to susceptibility share the Asp amino acid in position 70, and those shown as protection markers have Val in the same position.Amino acid sequences at residues 70-74 of DRB1 chain shared by HLA-DRB1 alleles (shared epítope) were also informative. The polyarticular JRA subset revealed association with 70QRRAA74, which includes HLA-DRB1*04, 01, and 70DRRAA74, which includes DRB1*1601, 1602, 1101, and 1104. Two new findings of interest were the association of the haplotypes DRB1*1104, DQB1*0301 with pauciarticular JRA and DRB1*1602, DQB1*0301 association with systemic JRA. The DRB1 alleles of these two haplotypes share the epítope 70DRAA74 and were associated with both the pauciarticular and the systemic subset of JRA. Our results suggest that studies of disease susceptibility in populations of admixed genetic background should take into account the contribution of different ethnic groups or nationalities in the recruitments of controls and patients studied in order to rule our genetic stratification.The information obtained from our findings in our series of Colombian patients are relevant and important because from the molecular point of view, at an antigenic presentation level, the amino acid in position 70 in the motif 67 to 73, at HLA molecule level, could activate TH1 or TH2 cells, which would be compromised in the immunopathology of this entity . Other genetic or/and environmental factors linked to these molecular characteristics expressed at the level of the HLA molecule and compromised in the antigenic response could interact and its result would be influencing the development and the expression of JRA In conclusion, our results demonstrated that the use of high-resolution typing for HLA-DRB1 and DQB1 alleles were informative for detecting specific epitopes of the HLA-DRB1 alleles to produce either protection from JRA susceptibility for pauciarticular or systemic subsets in Colombian mestizos.

The use of both multipotent progenitors and fully differentiated cells has been demonstrated to be effective for cell-based immunotherapy. The goal of this thesis was to establish an in vitro hematopoietic differentiation system to generate hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) and functional T cells from pluripotent stem cells. Generation of progenitor T cells by co-culturing stem cells on Notch ligand-expressing OP9 stromal cells (OP9-DL1) had been successfully employed previously. However, further differentiation of these cells in vitro into mature, antigen-specific, functional T cells, without retroviral transduction of T cell receptors (TcRs), had not been achieved. In the thymic niche, differentiation of T cells to a state of antigen specificity is controlled by the interaction of their developing TcRs with the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) on thymic stromal cells. We hypothesized that, by providing exogenous antigen-specific MHC/TcR signals, stem and progenitor cells could be engineered into functional effector T cells specific for the same antigen. In Chapter 3 and 4, we demonstrate that both thymus-derived double positive (DP: CD4+CD8+) immature T cells and mouse Embryonic Stem (ES) cells can be efficiently differentiated into antigen-specific CD8+ T cells using either MHC tetramers or peptide-loaded stromal cells. DP cells, following MHC/TcR signaling, retained elevated RAG1 levels, suggesting continuing TcR gene rearrangement. Both DP and ES cell-derived CD8+ T cells showed significant Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte (CTL) activity against antigen-loaded target cells, indicating that these cells are functional. This directed differentiation strategy could provide an efficient method for generating functional, antigen-specific CTLs from stem cells for potential use in adoptive T cell therapies. The use of ES cells in the clinic has been hindered by the unavailability of patient-specific ES cells and the ethical issues surrounding the use of human embryos. Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells offer great hope to regenerative medicine as their use can circumvent both the patient-specific and ethical issues associated with ES cells. In Chapter 5, we have developed a feeder cell-free suspension culture system supplemented with OP9-DL1 secretary factors to efficiently generated HPCs from iPS and ES cells. The differentiation potential of these HPCs was demonstrated by generation of DCs in the presence of GM-CSF and IL-3. The DCs express the activation molecules, CD86 and CD80 in response to LPS stimulation and are able to stimulate T cell proliferation in a mixed lymphocyte reaction. We employed extensive quantitative RT-PCR analysis to identify a number of differentially expressed genes in HPCs generated from the feeder-free culture. / text

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst., 2001. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Universiẗat, Diss., 2007--Giessen.

Tübingen, Univ., Diss., 2005.

Tierärztl. Hochsch., Diss., 2004--Hannover.

Universiẗat, Diss., 2005--Bonn.

Understanding the dynamics of functional genetic variability in small populations can have important implications in their conservation. I screened the variation of MHC II gene in Galapagos mockingbirds to evaluate the evolutionary forces that shaped the genetic variation. I found out that genetic drift affected the MHC variation together with a specific form of natural selection. Although the MHC is supposed to be under a pathogen-mediated selection I found no evidence for this theory in the mockingbird study system.

No description available.