Analysis of B cell dynamics in chronic neuroinflammation (17)

• Subject Area: Immunology
• Term: from 2013 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 215346292

B cell-depleting therapies have been used successfully as a treatment for MS, but the contribution of B cells and plasma cells to the pathogenesis of this neuroinflammatory disease is unclear. Project 17 investigated the role of B cells and plasma cells in EAE, a mouse model of chronic neuroinflammation, and found that plasma cells can become long lived in the chronically inflamed CNS, where they produce autoreactive antibodies over extended time periods. Their survival is promoted by the microenvironment, which contains factors similar to physiologic bone marrow niches. In the next funding period, the composition of physiologic and pathologic B cell and plasma cell niches will be comprehensively compared by multiplexed histology, and the impact of dynamic changes in the tissues on metabolism and function of those cells will be determined by intravital microscopy.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Transregios
• Subproject of: TRR 130: B Cells: Immunity and Autoimmunity
• Applicant Institution: Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
• Project Heads: Professorin Dr. Anja Erika Hauser; Dr. Helena Radbruch, until 6/2021