{"id":8,"date":"2016-03-18T23:07:57","date_gmt":"2016-03-18T23:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/alexandropouloslab\/?page_id=8"},"modified":"2016-06-16T20:44:49","modified_gmt":"2016-06-16T20:44:49","slug":"research-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/alexandropouloslab\/research-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/alexandropouloslab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/145\/2016\/05\/alex.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-96\" src=\"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/alexandropouloslab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/145\/2016\/05\/alex-1024x767.jpg\" alt=\"alex\" width=\"646\" height=\"484\" srcset=\"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/alexandropouloslab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/145\/2016\/05\/alex-1024x767.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/alexandropouloslab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/145\/2016\/05\/alex-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/alexandropouloslab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/145\/2016\/05\/alex.jpg 1388w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 646px) 100vw, 646px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Medullary Thymic Epithelial Cells<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Research in the laboratory concentrates on elucidating the role of T cells in the development of chronic inflammation and\/or autoimmunity. We are using genetically engineered mice lacking specific proteins and cell populations that disrupt the normal development of T cells, to determine whether\/how this disruption results in the development of autoimmunity. T cells originate from bone marrow precursors that migrate to the thymus where they undergo a series of differentiation steps. Stromal thymic epithelial cells (TECs) regulate the survival and maturation of immature thymocytes through presentation of self-antigens on their surface. Medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) in particular regulate the elimination of self-reactive T cells, a process called central tolerance. In addition, mTECs regulate the production of T regulatory (Treg) cells which suppress peripherally activated T cells (peripheral tolerance). Disruption of interactions between mTECs and T cells leads to aberrant elimination of autoreactive T cells, defective peripheral tolerance and organ-specific autoimmunity, manifested as T cell-containing inflammatory infiltrates and autoantibody production. We are currently using different mouse models with mutations that inhibit the development of mTECs to understand how disruption of thymic cross-talk between the medullary epithelium and T cells affects T cell selection in the thymus and whether T cells produced in a thymus depleted of mTECs mediate development of peripheral autoimmunity.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/alexandropouloslab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/145\/2016\/05\/mTECs1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-85\" title=\"Medullary Thymic Epithelial Cells\" src=\"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/alexandropouloslab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/145\/2016\/05\/mTECs1.jpg\" alt=\"mTECs\" width=\"1193\" height=\"895\" srcset=\"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/alexandropouloslab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/145\/2016\/05\/mTECs1.jpg 960w, https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/alexandropouloslab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/145\/2016\/05\/mTECs1-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1193px) 100vw, 1193px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Medullary Thymic Epithelial Cells Research in the laboratory concentrates on elucidating the role of T cells in the development of chronic inflammation and\/or autoimmunity. We are using genetically engineered mice lacking specific proteins and cell populations that disrupt the normal development of T cells, to determine whether\/how this disruption results in the development of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/alexandropouloslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/alexandropouloslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/alexandropouloslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/alexandropouloslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/alexandropouloslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/alexandropouloslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152,"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/alexandropouloslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8\/revisions\/152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/alexandropouloslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}