Browsing by Author "Jara, Evelyn L."

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    Female offspring gestated in hypothyroxinemia and infected with human Metapneumovirus (hMPV) suffer a more severe infection and have a higher number of activated CD8+ T lymphocytes
    (2022) Funes, Samanta C.; Rios, Mariana; Fernandez-Fierro, Ayleen; Rivera-Perez, Daniela; Soto, Jorge A.; Valbuena, Jose R.; Altamirano-Lagos, Maria J.; Gomez-Santander, Felipe; Jara, Evelyn L.; Zoroquiain, Pablo; Roa, Juan C.; Kalergis, Alexis M.; Riedel, Claudia A.
    Maternal thyroid hormones (THs) are essential for the appropriate development of the fetus and especially for the brain. Recently, some studies have shown that THs deficiency can also alter the immune system development of the progeny and their ability to mount an appropriate response against infectious agents. In this study, we evaluated whether adult mice gestated under hypothyroxinemia (Hpx) showed an altered immune response against infection with human metapneumovirus (hMPV). We observed that female mice gestated under Hpx showed higher clinical scores after seven days of hMPV infection. Besides, males gestated under Hpx have higher lung viral loads at day seven post-infection. Furthermore, the female offspring gestated in Hpx have already reduced the viral load at day seven and accordingly showed an increased proportion of activated (CD71(+) and FasL(+)) CD8(+) T cells in the lungs, which correlated with a trend for a higher histopathological clinical score. These results support that T-4 deficiency during gestation might condition the offspring differently in males and females, enhancing their ability to respond to hMPV.
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    Hormonal Modulation of Dendritic Cells Differentiation, Maturation and Function: Implications for the Initiation and Progress of Systemic Autoimmunity.
    (2016) Mackern-Oberti, Juan Pablo; Jara, Evelyn L.; Riedel, Claudia A.; Kalergis, Alexis M.
    Hormonal homeostasis is crucial for keeping a competent and healthy immune function. Several hormones can modulate the function of various immune cells such as dendritic cells (DCs) by influencing the initiation of the immune response and the maintenance of peripheral tolerance to self-antigens. Hormones, such as estrogens, prolactin, progesterone and glucocorticoids may profoundly affect DCs differentiation, maturation and function leading to either a pro-inflammatory or an anti-inflammatory (or tolerogenic) phenotype. If not properly regulated, these processes can contribute to the pathogenesis of autoimmune disease. An unbalanced hormonal status may affect the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, the expression of activating/inhibitory receptors and co-stimulatory molecules on conventional and plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs), conferring susceptibility to develop autoimmunity. Estrogen receptor (ER)-α signaling in conventional DCs can promote IFN-α and IL-6 production and induce the expression of CD40, CD86 and MHCII molecules. Furthermore, estrogen modulates the pDCs response to Toll-like receptor ligands enhancing T cell priming. During lupus pathogenesis, ER-α deficiency decreased the expression of MHC II on pDCs from the spleen. In contrast, estradiol administration to lupus-prone female mice increased the expression of co-stimulatory molecules, enhanced the immunogenicity and produced large amounts of IL-6, IL-12 and TNF-α by bone marrow-derived DCs. These data suggest that estradiol/ER signaling may play an active role during lupus pathology. Similarly, understanding hormonal modulation of DCs may favor the design of new therapeutic strategies based on autologous tolerogenic DCs transfer, especially in sex-biased systemic autoimmune diseases. In this review, we discuss recent data relative to the role of different hormones (estrogen, prolactin, progesterone and glucocorticoids) in DC function during systemic autoimmune pathogenesis.
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    THEMIS, the new kid on the block for T-cell development
    (2017) Espinoza Véliz, Janyra Alejandra; Jara, Evelyn L.; Kalergis Parra, Alexis Mikes
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    Tolerogenic dendritic cell transfer ameliorates systemic lupus erythematosus in mice
    (2019) Funes, S. C.; Ríos, Mariana; Gómez Santander, Felipe; Fernández Fierro, A.; Altamirano Lagos, M. J.; Rivera Pérez, D.; Pulgar Sepúlveda, R.; Jara, Evelyn L.; Rebolledo Zelada, D.; Villarroel, A.; Roa Strauch, Juan Carlos Enrique; Mackern Oberti, Juan Pablo; Kalergis Parra, Alexis Mikes