Browsing by Author "Füchtbauer, Ernst-Martin"

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    FIBCD1 Deficiency Decreases Disease Severity in a Murine Model of Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis
    (AAI, 2021-12) Bhattacharya, Shreya; Amarsaikhan, Nansalmaa; Maupin, Alec J.; Schlosser, Anders; Füchtbauer, Ernst-Martin; Holmskov, Uffe; Bonnet Moeller, Jesper; Templeton, Steven P.; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Aspergillus fumigatus is a ubiquitous mold associated with the development of pulmonary diseases that include invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA), an often fatal opportunistic infection. FIBCD1 is a transmembrane endocytic membrane receptor widely expressed on human epithelium. Although FIBCD1 was previously shown to bind chitin, modulate fungal colonization of the gut, and inhibit intestinal inflammation, the role of FIBCD1 in the context of lung fungal infection remains unknown. In this study, we observed that mortality, fungal burden, and tissue histopathology were decreased in the absence of FIBCD1 in murine IPA. Quantitative RT-PCR analyses demonstrated decreased inflammatory cytokines in the lungs of neutrophil-depleted FIBCD1−/− mice with IPA, when compared with wild-type controls. In contrast, inflammatory cytokines were increased in immune-competent FIBCD1−/− mice after fungal aspiration, suggesting that the presence of neutrophils is associated with cytokine modulation. In contrast to the clear IPA phenotype, FIBCD1−/− mice with systemic infection or bleomycin-induced lung injury exhibited similar morbidity and mortality when compared with their wild-type counterparts. Thus, our study identifies a detrimental role of FIBCD1 in IPA.
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    The role of FIBCD1 in response to Aspergillus fumigatus in lung epithelial cells
    (Public Library of Science, 2023-03-08) Bhattacharya, Shreya; Maupin, Alec Jacob; Schlosser, Anders Grønnegaard; Füchtbauer, Ernst-Martin; Gloria, Yamel Cardona; Weber, Alexander N. R.; Holmskov, Uffe; Moeller, Jesper Bonnet; Templeton, Steven P.; Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine
    Chitin, a polysaccharide, is ubiquitously found in nature and has been known to be an active immunogen in mammals, and interacts with Toll-like, mannose and glucan receptors, to induce cytokine and chemokine secretions. FIBCD1 is a tetrameric type II transmembrane endocytic vertebrate receptor that binds chitin, is found in human lung epithelium and modulates lung epithelial inflammatory responses to A. fumigatus cell wall polysaccharides. We previously reported the detrimental role of FIBCD1 in a murine model of pulmonary invasive aspergillosis. However, the effect that chitin and chitin-containing A. fumigatus conidia exerts on lung epithelium following exposure through FIBCD1 is not yet fully explored. Using both in vitro and in vivo strategies, we examined how lung and lung epithelial gene expression are modified after exposure to fungal conidia or chitin fragments in the presence or absence of FIBCD1. FIBCD1 expression was associated with a decrease in inflammatory cytokines with increasing size of chitin (dimer-oligomer). Thus, our results demonstrate that FIBCD1 expression modulates cytokine and chemokine expression in response to A. fumigatus conidia that is modified by the presence of chitin particles.