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Office: C250 GHIowa City, IA 52242 Phone: +1 319 356 0370 Email: annette-schlueter@uiowa.edu
Office/Lab: SW234 GHIowa City IA, 52242 Phone: +1 319 335 7694
Web: Research Laboratory
PhD, University of Illinois, 1991MD, University of Illinois, 1993Residency, Resident in Clinical Pathology, University of Iowa, 1996Fellowship, Fellow in Transfusion Medicine, University of Iowa, 1998
Primary: Pathology
dendritic cell, ethanol, graft versus host disease, stem cell transplant
My laboratory is interested in the contributions of dendritic cell (DC) to disease. Specifically, we study the defects induced in DC by chronic ethanol (EtOH) exposure that contribute to increased incidence and severity of infectious disease, and the influence of aging on DC ability to induce more severe graft vs. host disease following allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT). It is clear that chronic alcohol abuse results in immunodeficiency, characterized by increased risk and severity of multiple types of infection. Evidence from our mouse model of alcoholism indicates that chronic ethanol exposure results in decreased numbers of DC in peripheral lymphoid tissue and epidermis. In addition, we have found defective DC migration from skin to draining lymph nodes in the presence of EtOH. EtOH-exposed DC are also unable to present antigen appropriately to T cells, and have dysregulated costimulatory molecule expression. We are investigating additional ways in which EtOH exposure in vivo may influence DC function, thereby increasing the susceptibility of alcoholics to infection. In addition, my laboratory is interested in understanding the role that recipient DC play in the increased susceptibility of advanced age allogeneic HCT patients to graft-versus host disease (GVHD), and the mechanism(s) by which in vitro-derived recipient regulatory DC can control this disease. Understanding functional changes in these native and therapeutic populations with age will allow us to design therapeutic interventions that may limit the toxicity of GVHD, and allow this life-saving therapy to be offered to more advanced age patients.