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The role of immune system in development of obesity and derived metabolic complications
Jindrová, Simona ; Bardová, Kristina (advisor) ; Cinkajzlová, Anna (referee)
Obesity is a chronic disease caused by an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure. Important source of energy is the body fat, stored in adipose tissue cells in the form of triacylglycerols. The adipose tissue does not only store triacylglycerols but also functions as an endocrine organ with the ability to secrete cytokines and adipokines - the molecules, participating in series of the metabolic proceses. The consequence of high-fat diet feeding is the growth of adipose cells and altered production od adipokines and cytokines. Majority of them have proinflammatory functions. Consequently inflammation of adipose tissue is increased as well as the activation of components of immune system, especially macrophages. The interplay between these and other aspects, including hight free fatty acid plasma levels, also associated with metabolic disorders caused by obesity, is connected with the development of insulin resistance, that means state, when the tissues are nonsensitive to insulin. Key words: obesity, adipokines, cytokines, immune system, adipose tissue, insulin resistance
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Formation of anti-hCMV immunity
Písková, Lucie ; Žůrková, Kamila (advisor) ; Fraiberk, Martin (referee)
The human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is an ancient double-stranded DNA virus that belongs to subfamily β Herpesvirinae and is ubiquitous in human population. Like other herpesviruses infections, the HCMV primary infection leads to a lifelong latency and the virus reactivates from latency periodically through the whole life. The transmission of this virus depends on direct contact among people. The primary HCMV infection is usually asymptomatic in immunocompetent individuals but the reactivated virus is a major cause of diseases in immunocompromised individuals including AIDS patients and allo-graft transplant recipients. This work represents a report about HCMV and its coexistence with the host immune system. The thesis also contains information about complications caused by HCMV in patients who underwent solid-organ or hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
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Proteasomes and DNA virus infection
Vinšová, Barbora ; Drda Morávková, Alena (advisor) ; Motlová, Lucia (referee)
The development of virus infection depends on virus - host interactions. Millions of years of ongoing virus - host coevolution led to formation of many antiviral defense mechanisms as same as virus evasion strategies. Viruses have learned to intervene in the various cellular processes, modify it and take advantage of particular cellular components. One of those cellular components widely utilised by viruses is the ubiquitin-proteasome system. Proteasomes are multisubunit protein structures that under normal conditions provide degradation of damaged, missfolded or redundant cellular proteins. With their function proteasomes contribute to regulation of various cellular processes and maintain balance of proteins ratio. Viruses utilise those structures for protein degradation in order to evade host immunity system and deregulate cell cycle, to entry and unpacking of virions or in order to favor virus replication. This thesis is conceived to briefly summarize interactions of cellular ubiquitin-proteasome system and DNA viruses.
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Verification of practical possibilities to strengthen the immune system in women
VRCHOTOVÁ, Nikola
The topic of this final bachelor work is immune system which comprehensively describes its function and factors that influence it. The theoretical part deals with function of the immune system, introduces its cells and organs which are split synoptically. Further on, the theoretical part describes factors with influence on the function of the immune system. These are factors which reinforce but also weaken immune system. Every factor in this work is explained with its influence on immune system and it also describes the signs of its absence or surplus in human's health. Practical part of the bachelor work deals with immune training of Hermann Geesing (2008). The immune system is applied on eight women for the time of eight months. They were noting the activities of immune training into tables during two periods May to August and September to December. The results are evaluated by two graphs. One of them shows percentage of the set activities that were fulfilled. The second one describes subjective and complex condition of the women who participated in the training. The results are rated after every period and separately on every woman. At the end, the work describes the benefit of the immune training for every woman.
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Psychoneuroimmunology of alexithymia
Uher, Tomáš ; Bob, Petr (advisor) ; Boleloucký, Zdeněk (referee) ; Smolík, Petr (referee)
Alexithymia represents a deficit in identifying and expressing emotions, paucity of fantasies, and an externally oriented cognitive style. Currently, numerous studies document that alexithymia and several mental and somatic disorders are significantly related. Several findings also indicate that this association might be caused by alexithymia related dysregulation of neuroendocrine and immune functions. Together these findings indicate that stressors related to alexithymia could underlie the process of neuroendocrine and immune dysregulation that likely may present a significant risk, sustaining and mediating pathogenesis of several disorders and particulary psychosomatic illnesses. In this context, it is also known that several proinflammatory cytokines may play a role in pain generation and that alexithymia is significantly associated with pain symptoms in several pain disorders. Following these findings this study includes several new data developing current state of the art and showing some alexithymia specific changes in patients with neurological disorders. Main finding of this study shows that alexithymia and anxiety in their specific interactions are linked to increased levels of interleukine-8 (IL-8) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the group of patients with non-inflammatory neurological...
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Antitumor immunotherapy of prostate carcinoma
Kobosilová, Linda ; Špíšek, Radek (advisor) ; Šmahel, Michal (referee)
The progressiveness in basic immunology is leading to a better comprehension of the interaction between the immune system and tumours. It arouses the interest in the use of the immune system in cancer treatment. Preclinical and clinical studies of the antitumour immunotherapy report promising results of several tested substances. These results also illustrate the basic operating principles of the immune system. The best illustration of the hopes put into antitumour immunotherapy is a recent approval of a substance for prostate cancer treatment called Sipuleucel-T by the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This work summarizes recent findings in the development of strategies for the antitumour immunotherapy of prostate cancer, but most of these findings and strategies are applicable for other types of cancer as well.
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Function of antimicrobial proteins in albumen of precocial birds
Krkavcová, Eva ; Kreisinger, Jakub (advisor) ; Kratochvíl, Lukáš (referee)
Antimicrobial proteins contained in the albumen represent maternal effects, including the non- genetic component allocated into the egg during its oogenesis. Especially for species, whose broods are exposed to environmental influences until completation, these proteins play a crucial role in the viability of embryos due to their potential to influence the risk of microbial infection, which is considered one of the main causes of reduced hatchability. Also, it is assumed that these proteins, beacause of their specific traits, may influence phenotype of chicks, especially its size and immunity in the early postembryonal stage. In my thesis I focused on three antimicrobial proteins of avian egg white - avidin, lysozyme and ovotransferrin, which vary in their antimicrobial activity. For a better understanding of causal relationships between the concentrations of these proteins in the albumen and their effect on hatching success or offspring phenotype, a series of manipulation experiments and correlative measurements were performed. These experiments were held on the eggs of two precocial species - Japanese Quail (Coturnix japonica) and Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos). Our results indicate a crucial role of antimicrobial proteins in reducing the risk of bacterial infection and their natural concentration...
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Studying immune system using MHC II/ EGFP knock-in mouse
Zadražil, Zdeněk ; Černý, Jan (advisor) ; Tlaskalová - Hogenová, Helena (referee)
The immune system is essential for keeping the integrity of multicellular organisms. We were able to make a step forward in studying the complex immune reactions in mammals in vivo and/ or in situ using the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II/ enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) knock-in mouse model. Due to the EGFP visualization of MHC II expressing cells we were able to observe antigen presenting cells, which are essential for the onset of immune responses, in their natural environment. Thus, we report some original features of the immune system. We have identified MHC II+ cell clusters with unknown, probably unique function, in the intestine. We have also described MHC II+ cell migration to the lactating mammary gland and tested few hypotheses about the role of this phenomenon for the development of the mammary gland, milk secretion or infant immune system establishment. Lastly, we observed residential macrophages in the cornea. The presence of APCs in the cornea is a very contradictory issue due to the fact that cornea is an immunologically privileged tissue and therefore harbors special immune features. key words: antigen presenting cells (APC), major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC II), enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP), immune system, knock-in mouse model
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Tumor microenvironment and the importance of anti-tumor immunity for clinical course of human cancers
Partlová, Simona ; Špíšek, Radek (advisor) ; Drbal, Karel (referee) ; Kovář, Marek (referee)
Cancer development and progression vary depending on tumor type, localization, invasion, immunogenicity and the ability of immune system to become activated. There are frequent interactions between tumor cells and immune cells, occuring locally at the site of primary tumor or distally through paracrine signalling of various mediators and cytokines. The main subject of this PhD thesis is to study key factors and aspects of immune response in cancer patients. In the first part, we analyzed immune cells infiltrating tumor tissues of ovarian cancer patients at different stages of disease. We focused on the dynamics of immune response, primarily on frequency of individual T lymphocyte populations in peripheral blood and tumor infiltrating T lymphocytes in tumors of early and advanced stages of ovarian cancer. We found that during disease progression there is a gradual decrease of proinflammatory Th17 and Th1 immune responses and a specific recruitment of regulatory T cells to the tumor site, which results in a significant immune suppression in the tumor microenvironment. In the second part, we demonstrated that the character of immune response in HPV-positive head and neck cancer patients is very different from the patients with tumors not associated with HPV infection. In HPV-positive patients, significantly...
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The function of palmitoylation of membrane proteins in immune cells
Hanusová, Zdeňka ; Otáhal, Pavel (advisor) ; Pavlů, Barbora (referee)
Protein palmitoylation is a post-translation modification, which typically regulates the protein interaction with a membrane; apart from that, it can have various functions in protein regulation. Process of this modification covers covalent attachment of palmitate to an aminoacid residue in the target protein; identity of the aminoacid than determines the palmitoylation type. Most common is modification of a cystein residue - in that case we speak about so-called S-palmitoiyation. The exceptionality of this lipid modification type is in the reversibility of the whole process; this enables for example trafficking regulation of many proteins between various membrane compartments and ragulation of proteins' function. In vivo, palmitoylation of many proteins is mediated by enzymes protein acyltransferases, while depalmitoylation is mediated by enzymes acylprotein thioesterases. Palmitoylated proteins can be identified in wide spectrum of cellular types, also in immune cells. Palmitoylation plays here an important role, especially in interaction of signal proteins with lipid rafts and the related modulation of protein's function. Significance has palmitoylation also as a dynamic process, which mediates the right identification of protein's subcellular localization. This work is a review and it's aim is...
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