BACKGROUND It is believed that inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) result from an imbalance in the intestinal immune response towards the luminal microbiome. Dectin-1 is a widely expressed pattern recognition receptor that recognizes fungi and upon recognition it mediates cytokine responses and skewing of the adaptive immune system. Hence, dectin-1 may be involved in the pathogenesis of IBD. ME...

Aspergillus fumigatus is an important opportunistic fungal pathogen. Patients treated with chemotherapeutic agent such as cyclophosphamide are susceptible to invasive pulmonary aspergillosis. Dectin-1 is a pattern recognition receptor critically involved in immune responses to A. fumigatus. Therefore, we tested whether cyclophosphamide treatment could cause alterations in dectin-1 expression in...

The C-type lectin receptor dectin-1 functions as a pattern recognition receptor for beta-glucans and signals via Syk kinase but independently of the Toll-like receptor (TLR) pathway to regulate expression of innate response genes. Dectin-1 signaling can promote activation of dendritic cells (DCs), rendering them competent to prime Th1 and Th17 responses. Here we show that dectin-1-activated DCs...

Targeting of Ags and therapeutics to dendritic cells (DCs) has immense potential for immunotherapy and vaccination. Because DCs are heterogeneous, optimal targeting strategies will require knowledge about functional specialization among DC subpopulations and identification of molecules for targeting appropriate DCs. We characterized the expression of a fungal recognition receptor, DC-associated...

Dectin 1 is a mammalian cell surface receptor for (133)-D-glucans. Since (133)-D-glucans are commonly present on fungal cell walls, it has been suggested that dectin 1 is important for recognizing fungal invasion. In this study we tried to deduce the amino acid residues in dectin 1 responsible for -glucan recognition. HEK293 cells transfected with mouse dectin 1 cDNA could bind to a gel-forming...

At host–pathogen contact sites with Candida albicans, Dectin-1 activates pro-inflammatory signaling, while DC-SIGN promotes adhesion to the fungal surface. We observed that and collaborate enhance capture/retention of C. albicans under fluid shear culture conditions. Therefore, we devised a cellular model system wherein could investigate interaction between these two receptors during earliest s...

Dectin-1 is an important macrophage phagocytic receptor recognizing fungal beta-glucans. In this study, the mRNA levels of the Dectin-1 gene were found to be decreased by 61% in alveolar macrophages (AMs) from Pneumocystis-infected mice. The expression of Dectin-1 protein on the surface of these cells was also significantly decreased. By fluorescence in situ hybridization, mRNA expression level...

Phagocytosis by innate immune cells is an important process for protection against multiple pathologies and is particularly important for resistance to infection. However, phagocytosis has also been implicated in the progression of some diseases, including the dissemination of the human fungal pathogen, Cryptococcus neoformans. Previously, we identified Dectin-1 as a likely phagocytic receptor ...

Innate immunity can facilitate nervous system regeneration, yet the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms are not well understood. Here we show that intraocular injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a bacterial cell wall component, or the fungal cell wall extract zymosan both lead to rapid and comparable intravitreal accumulation of blood-derived myeloid cells. However, when combined wi...

We have re-investigated the role of the complement system and the non-opsonic pattern recognition receptors dectin-1 and dectin-2 in the recognition of fungal particles by inflammatory neutrophils, monocytes and macrophages. We have used in vivo and ex vivo models to study the recognition and response of these cells: i) We confirm previous observations regarding the importance of complement to ...