http://hdl.handle.net/10033/6852 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 22:00:19 GMT 2013-06-19T22:00:19Z http://hdl.handle.net/10033/288579 Title: Immunization with live virus vaccine protects highly susceptible DBA/2J mice from lethal influenza A H1N1 infection. Authors: Dengler, Leonie; May, Mathias; Wilk, Esther; Bahgat, Mahmoud M; Schughart, Klaus Abstract: The mouse represents an important model system to study the host response to influenza A infections and to evaluate new prevention or treatment strategies. We and others reported that the susceptibility to influenza A virus infections strongly varies among different inbred mouse strains. In particular, DBA/2J mice are highly susceptible to several influenza A subtypes, including human isolates and exhibit severe symptoms after infection with clinical isolates. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10033/288579 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10033/278939 Title: Distinct gene loci control the host response to influenza H1N1 virus infection in a time-dependent manner. Authors: Nedelko, Tatiana; Kollmus, Heike; Klawonn, Frank; Spijker, Sabine; Lu, Lu; Heßman, Manuela; Alberts, Rudi; Williams, Robert W; Schughart, Klaus Abstract: There is strong but mostly circumstantial evidence that genetic factors modulate the severity of influenza infection in humans. Using genetically diverse but fully inbred strains of mice it has been shown that host sequence variants have a strong influence on the severity of influenza A disease progression. In particular, C57BL/6J, the most widely used mouse strain in biomedical research, is comparatively resistant. In contrast, DBA/2J is highly susceptible. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10033/278939 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10033/274553 Title: Structural and functional concepts in current mouse phenotyping and archiving facilities. Authors: Kollmus, Heike; Post, Rainer; Brielmeier, Markus; Fernández, Julia; Fuchs, Helmut; McKerlie, Colin; Montoliu, Lluis; Otaegui, Pedro J; Rebelo, Manuel; Riedesel, Hermann; Ruberte, Jesús; Sedlacek, Radislav; de Angelis, Martin Hrabě; Schughart, Klaus Abstract: Collecting and analyzing available information on the building plans, concepts, and workflow from existing animal facilities is an essential prerequisite for most centers that are planning and designing the construction of a new animal experimental research unit. Here, we have collected and analyzed such information in the context of the European project Infrafrontier, which aims to develop a common European infrastructure for high-throughput systemic phenotyping, archiving, and dissemination of mouse models. A team of experts visited 9 research facilities and 3 commercial breeders in Europe, Canada, the United States, and Singapore. During the visits, detailed data of each facility were collected and subsequently represented in standardized floor plans and descriptive tables. These data showed that because the local needs of scientists and their projects, property issues, and national and regional laws require very specific solutions, a common strategy for the construction of such facilities does not exist. However, several basic concepts were apparent that can be described by standardized floor plans showing the principle functional units and their interconnection. Here, we provide detailed information of how individual facilities addressed their specific needs by using different concepts of connecting the principle units. Our analysis likely will be valuable to research centers that are planning to design new mouse phenotyping and archiving facilities. Sun, 01 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10033/274553 2012-07-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10033/255463 Title: PLAU inferred from a correlation network is critical for suppressor function of regulatory T cells. Authors: He, Feng; Chen, Hairong; Probst-Kepper, Michael; Geffers, Robert; Eifes, Serge; Del Sol, Antonio; Schughart, Klaus; Zeng, An-Ping; Balling, Rudi Abstract: Human FOXP3(+)CD25(+)CD4(+) regulatory T cells (Tregs) are essential to the maintenance of immune homeostasis. Several genes are known to be important for murine Tregs, but for human Tregs the genes and underlying molecular networks controlling the suppressor function still largely remain unclear. Here, we describe a strategy to identify the key genes directly from an undirected correlation network which we reconstruct from a very high time-resolution (HTR) transcriptome during the activation of human Tregs/CD4(+) T-effector cells. We show that a predicted top-ranked new key gene PLAU (the plasminogen activator urokinase) is important for the suppressor function of both human and murine Tregs. Further analysis unveils that PLAU is particularly important for memory Tregs and that PLAU mediates Treg suppressor function via STAT5 and ERK signaling pathways. Our study demonstrates the potential for identifying novel key genes for complex dynamic biological processes using a network strategy based on HTR data, and reveals a critical role for PLAU in Treg suppressor function. Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10033/255463 2012-11-20T00:00:00Z