Search

Sheep are not only a major livestock species globally, they are also an important large animal model for biomedical research and have contributed to our understanding of the ontogeny and architecture of the mammalian immune system. In this study, we applied immunohistochemistry and multicolor immunofluorescence in fixed and paraffin-embedded lymph nodes to phenotype the key populations of antigen presenting cells, lymphocytes, and stromal cells that orchestrate the host adaptive immune response. We used an extensive panel of antibodies directed against markers associated with dendritic cells (MHC class II, CD83, and CD208), macrophages (CD11b, CD163, and CD169), stromal cells (CNA.42, S100, and CD83), and lymphocytes (CD3, Pax5, CD4, CD8). Using different methods of tissue fixation and antigen retrieval, we provide a detailed immunophenotyping of sheep lymph nodes including the identification of potential subpopulations of antigen presenting cells and stromal cells. By characterizing cells expressing combinations of these markers in the context of their morphology and location within the lymph node architecture, we provide valuable new tools to investigate the structure, activation, and regulation of the sheep immune system in health and disease.

International audience; Exciting times for the field of renal autoimmune diseases have begun. In 2021, for the first time, two new drugs belimumab (1) and voclosporin ( 2) are approved for the treatment of lupus nephritis (LN) (1, 2). Other novel targeted therapies demonstrate clinical efficacy in large, randomized trials, such as avacopan for ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) (3), imlifidase for Goodpasture’s disease and iptacopan for IgA nephropathy (IgAN). Pathogenic molecules are specifically targeted by new drugs that help to uncover novel aspects of disease mechanisms leading to glomerulonephritis. Simultaneously, the field is boosted by novel big data technologies on the single cell levels such as high-sensitive multi-color flow cytometry, single-cell genomics (single-cell RNA sequencing - scRNAseq), single cell metabolomics and proteomics. The novel treatment options in renal autoimmune diseases almost simultaneously require new immunomonitoring tools. ‘Immunomonitoring’includes the wide range of approaches to monitoring immune responses by the cellular immune system (e.g. T-cells, B-cells, plasma cells, dendritic cells, neutrophils etc.), or by the humoral immune system (e.g. cytokines, (auto-)antibodies, urinary markers, etc.). Monitoring relevant immune responses in patients with renal autoimmune diseases helps us to better understand a) the underpinning immunological pathophysiology of these diseases; b) the beneficial effects of novel treatments on autoimmunity; and c) can potentially help doctors and patients guide a personalized treatment strategy, adding information on immunological (non-)response to a clinical (non-) response treatment and on disease prognosis. In the present Research Topic, we have been able to collect for you a vast amount of research addressing novel ways and the roleof immunomonitoring in the broad range of renal autoimmune disease including LN, AAV, IgAN, idiopathic membranous nephropathy (iMN) and complement-mediated disease (CMD).