The role of dermal macrophages in the initial immune response against Leishmania infection

Abstract

Leishmaniasis is a disease transmitted by sand fly bites into host's skin, therefore the immune response against the parasite is initiated early in the skin, even in visceral cases. Murine models have shown that immune responses against Leishmania are very diverse, and may depend on the parasite species, strains and/or mice background. This is especially true for the roles played by inflamasomes and IL-1b during infection. Activation of inflammasomes with consequent production of IL-1b has been shown to be beneficial or detrimental to the progress of the disease. Since, further studies are needed. Given that Leishmania parasites differentiate and replicate inside macrophages, our aim is to understand the response of dermal macrophages employing models of cutaneous and visceral forms of the disease and focusing on IL-1b production and its role during infection progression. Transcriptional profiling of dermal macrophages from infected wild-type and knockout animals will be employed to achieve this purpose.