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Ming Zeng
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E-mail: zengx038@umn.edu
Thesis advisor: Ashley
Haase
Year entered: 2006
Degrees received:
B.S., Basic Medicine, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
2006
Honors and Awards:
- MICaB Travel Award Fall Semester 2008
- 2. Global Health Award from Keystone meeting
Thesis research:
The organized structure of secondary lymphoid tissue
(SLT) constitutes a microenvironment that plays a critical
role in naïve T cell homeostasis, by promoting interactions
between naïve T cells and stromal cells, which are the
major producers of cytokines and growth factors such as IL-7
on which naïve cells depend for survival, proliferation,
and differentiation. However, how the structure of SLT changes
during HIV/SIV infection is unknown. In my previous research,
I found that during SIVmac251 infection of rhesus macaques
(RMs), stromal cells--fibroblastic reticular cells (FRCs)
and follicular dendritic cells (FDCs)-- are lost and IL-7
levels are decreased, associated with the loss of stromal
cells. Collagen deposits also replace the FRC networks to
entrap and limit the access of lymphocytes to the residual
stromal cells. The loss of stromal cells and deposition of
collagen is significantly correlated with the loss of naïve
T cells, consistent with the conclusion that the destruction
of the SLT architecture plays an important role in the loss
of naïve T cells in SIV infection. We further show that
the SLT architecture remains intact in the chronic nonpathogenic
SIV infection of sooty mangabeys (SMs), along with normal
level of naïve T cells in the SLT. In next step, I am
going to investigate the mechanisms leading to the loss of
stromal cells during SIV infection by using immunohistochemistry
and in situ hybridization techniques.
Publications:
J. D. Estes, S.N. Gordon, M Zeng, A.M. Chahroudi, R.M. Dunham,
S.I. Staprans, C.S. Reilly, G. Silvestri, A.T. Haase. 2008.
Early Resolution of Acute Immune Activation and Induction
of PD-1 in SIV-Infected Sooty Mangabeys Distinguishes Nonpathogenic
from Pathogenic Infection in Rhesus Macaques. J
Immunol. 15;180(10):6798-807.
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