| Grant number: | 07/07120-0 |
| Support Opportunities: | Research Grants - Young Investigators Grants |
| Start date: | June 01, 2008 |
| End date: | June 30, 2012 |
| Field of knowledge: | Health Sciences - Medicine |
| Principal Investigator: | Alexandre de Castro Keller |
| Grantee: | Alexandre de Castro Keller |
| Host Institution: | Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil |
| Associated researchers: | Alvaro Pacheco e Silva Filho ; Niels Olsen Saraiva Câmara ; Pamella Huey Mei Wang |
| Associated scholarship(s): | 11/06606-2 - The metabolism o endogenous glycolipids during the modulation of experimental glomerulonephritis by invariant Natural Killer T cells, BP.IC |
Abstract
The invariant Natural Killer T cells (iNKT) are a distinct subpopulation of T lymphocytes. Recently, different studies showed that depending on the immunological context, the iNKT cells can play regulatory or effector role in the development of different pathologies. Preliminary results obtained during my Post-Doctoral stage at Necker Hospital- Paris, indicate that these cells exert a regulatory effect in the development of experimental anti-glomerular basement membrane glomerulonephritis. The glomerulonephritis are recognized worldwide as one of the most important cause of chronic renal insufficiency. These pathologies have a complex and unclear pathogenesis, thus its usual treatment is an immunosuppressive regimen. Therefore, the prognostics are frequently quite limited, resulting in a chronic disease which evolutes to fibrosis and lost of renal function. Hence, the development of alternative approaches in the treatment as well as new prognostics factors that can better characterize the evolution of these diseases is nowadays object of a great importance. The iNKT can promptly secret a large number of cytokines as IL-4, IFN-gamma, IL-10, IL-13 and others, playing an important role in the immune system homeostasis. Since my preliminary results pointed out an important role of the iNKT in the resistance to the development of anti-GBMGN, the aim of this project is to better understand its function in this disease and in another two GNs: the acute diffuse post-infectious GN and the IgA nephropathy. Moreover, this project will use experimental and clinical approach in order to adjoin basic science with medical experience allowing the evolution of the knowledge about this group of diseases and the improvement of researchers, physicians and students. (AU)
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