No description available.

Early postnatal period is characterised by generally immature phenotype of the newborn's immune system. The maturation of the immune system including setting appropriate regulatory responses is occurring during this period and encountering pioneering bacteria colonizing neonate plays an important role. In the early days after birth, the immune system of a newborn is very limited, and the adaptive part is mostly represented by antibodies transferred from the mother by cord blood (CB) in the womb and then by colostrum and mother's milk after labour. Therefore, innate immunity plays a key role in defence (against pathogens) in neonates and is largely represented by neutrophils. This study aims to better understand neutrophil biology and phenotype in umbilical CB, compared to neutrophils from peripheral blood (PB) of mothers and healthy non pregnant women (referred to as HC). The assessment of neutrophil phenotype based on surface markers was performed using flow cytometry. Expression of genes linked to antimicrobial function was measured using quantitative PCR. Functional properties of neutrophils, metabolic activity during activation and phagocytosis, and suppressive properties were assessed using the SeaHorse machine and flow cytometry, respectively. Here we confirm the presence of immature CD16low...

In this study we examined the effect of the tick saliva from I. ricinus and the effect of recombinant protein IRS-2 from the saliva of I. ricinus on dendritic cells derived from the mice bone marrow. We studied their effect on the production of cytokines by dendritic cells after the stimulation by B. burgdorferi, their effect on the expression of genes, that participate in phagocytosis, and the impact of the tick saliva on phagocytosis of B. burgdorferi by dendritic cells.

Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato and Anaplasma phagocytophilum are causative agents of Lyme disease and human granulocytic anaplasmosis. Their common vector in Europe are the ticks from the genus Ixodes. In our work, we focused on interaction of innate immune cells with the causative agent of Lyme diseases, that are insubstitutable in their function in the early phase of the disease. Anaplasma phagocytophilum is hard to cultivate, the only possibility is to cultivate it in cell cultures. Successful cultivation of Anaplasma phagocytophilum acquired from patients in our geographic area is crucial for following experiments and for diagnostics too. In our experiments, we used validated cell cultures of HL-60 cells, canine monocytes DH82 and murine monocytes P388D1. During our studies of interaction of the causative agent of Lyme diseases with cells, we used two strains of different species Borrelia. Borrelia garinii M192 and Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto B31. These strains vary in virulence. The strain M192 is virulent, but the strain B31 lost its virulence by passages. We specialised in study of morphological changes using light microscopy (observation of dyed and fixed preparates and observation in dark field), eventually by transmision electron microscopy. During our experiments, we concluded that HL-60...

Molluscs as well as all other invertebrates rely on innate immune response only. Their internal defense system is capable of destroying most pathogens. However, there are some exceptions, e.g. some snails serve as intermediate hosts for some trematodes. Trematodes are able to develop inside these snails due to intervention in the snail internal defense system. The submitted thesis describes hemocyte activities of two lymnaeid snails, Lymnaea stagnalis a Radix lagotis, and the influence of Trichobilharzia regenti infection on R. lagotis hemocytes. Hemocytes of both species exposed to various chemicals produced different amounts of H2O2 and NO. The response varied between both lymnaeid species. The amount of circulating hemocytes was elevated in R. lagotis snails due to T. regenti infection. However, the infenction attenuated hemocyte activities monitored by us. Hemocyte basal NO production was decreased as well as phagocytosis of bacteria, cell adherence and pseudopodia formation. Toxicity of L. stagnalis plasma against T. regenti miracidia was also described. Mechanisms used by trematodes to interact with the snail internal defense system will help us to understand why one species is suitable for the develepment of the trematode whereas another closely related species kills it. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

CD47 is a so-called "don't eat me" signal, which protects cells from phagocytosis. Its high expresion on tumor cells brings new perspective to the tumor therapy. Monoclonal antibodies, which are these days undergoing clinical trials, prevent CD47 binding to the SIRPA inhibitory receptor on macrophages, and so they enhance their phagocytic functional capacity. In this way they enable phagocytic removal of tumor cells. Overall expression, structural conformation and stoichiometry of CD47 on a particular cell predestine whether it will be phagocytised. The aim of the thesis is to develop and test methods to characterise expression parameters of CD47 via flow cytometry (FCM), quantitative PCR (qPCR) and microscopy. To achieve this goal I performed competition tests of commercially available antibodies in order to characterise their binding epitopes on cell lines. After performing tSNE analysis of primary BCa patient samples I correlated CD47 expression with other cell surface markers. I focused on CD47 expression in various differentiation stages of the tumor. To better understand the relationship between CD47 expression and differentiation status of cells I performed qPCR analysis of particular transcription factors. Using cell lines I examined method for phagocytosis quantification, which will be...