Project description:
The brain is protected from external influences by anatomical structures such as the perivascular space, the choroid plexus, and the meninges. Specialized immune cells like macrophages and T-lymphocytes surveil these border regions. In our study, we investigated these immune cells during brain development, under normal conditions, and in tumor diseases. Using highly sensitive molecular methods, we obtained detailed data on the immune cell states. We found clear differences in the function and developmental dynamics of macrophages in the border regions compared to brain tissue. Some immune cells are replenished from the bloodstream, which is particularly important in glioblastomas. These findings provide new insights into the composition and dynamics of immune cells at brain border regions and could facilitate the development of therapies to activate the immune response against glioblastomas.
Publication:
Roman Sankowski, Patrick Süß, Alexander Benkendorff, Chotima Böttcher, Camila Fernandez-Zapata, Chintan Chhatbar, Jonathan Cahueau, Gianni Monaco, Adrià Dalmau Gasull, Ashkan Khavaran, Jürgen Grauvogel, Christian Scheiwe, Mukesch Johannes Shah, Dieter Henrik Heiland, Oliver Schnell, Filiz Markfeld-Erol, Mirjam Kunze, Robert Zeiser, Josef Priller & Marco Prinz. Multiomic spatial landscape of innate immune cells at human central nervous system borders. Nature Medicine 2024.
Submitting the Paper of the Month:
Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung is using the series “Paper of the Month” to report in an exemplary and hot-off-the-press style on the outstanding work being done by the scientists it supports. We regularly present publications which have recently appeared in especially renowned journals, have emerged from foundation funding and been given appropriate acknowledgment. This is done in the respective categories “Original Paper” and “Review”. In the case of each of these publications, the first author and/or senior author are being funded by the foundation.
We invite all project managers, fellowship recipients and members of graduate study programs to send their work in accordance with the stated criteria as proposal for Paper of the Month to Ms. Anne Asschenfeldt (a.asschenfeldt@ekfs.de).
