Abstracts
Identifying new genes responsible for asthma
Damon Tumes
PhD student, University of Adelaide,
Discipline of Microbiology and Immunology
Supervised through Microbiology and Immunology, University of Adelaide
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease in which white blood cells infiltrate the lung tissue, contributing to lung damage, mucus production and airways obstruction. It is characterised by reversible narrowing of the airways resulting in difficulty breathing. In children, approximately 20% of the Australian population are affected by asthma and this decreases to approximately 10% by adulthood. The factors that determine why some subsets of the population are susceptible to asthma and others are not remains elusive. Using mouse strains that differ in susceptibility to experimental asthma, we are identifying factors which may predispose to or protect against disease.
Genes control how cells behave and how they function within the body. We are currently, simultaneously monitoring the expression of 22,000 genes in the lung to determine which are expressed in asthma susceptible mice as opposed to asthma resistant mice. We have identified several genes that are only expressed in the asthma susceptible animals and also some that are only expressed in the asthma resistant animals and may thus protect against development of allergic asthma. Genes we have identified include: CD7 and CD52, these are cell surface molecules which allow cells in the lung to interact with the environment around them, eotaxin-1 and L-selectin that are involved in the recruitment of inflammatory cells to the site of inflammation and a previously uncharacterised molecule that to date has no known function.
This study identifies several genes that could predispose some populations to susceptibility to allergic asthma and may provide new therapeutic strategies for disease intervention.
