Week Seven

I started off the week with two final ELISAs, and the data definitely confirmed things from the Elispot and FACS. It's great to finally have this data ready, because it proves the validity of this experiment, even though the data itself is unexpected and contradicts previous findings. Because of this, we will have to closely re-examine the previous experiments dealing with the complement receptors.
Journal Club, which we've been attending regularly, was on an especially interesting topic. We studied an article which explores the mechanisms why females are more prone to autoimmune diseases than males. The journal's findings suggest that the XX chromosome complement is what actually confers greater susceptibility to autoimmune diseases, such as lupus, as compared to the XY chromosome complement. The experiments themselves used castration techniques to focus on the susceptibility of chromosome complements alone, without the added variability factor of sex hormones. The study was mostly in vivo, and done in mice models. A hypothetical conclusion that could be derived has to do with their data showing that there is a higher expression of IL-13Ra2 on XX than on XY. IL-13Ra2 is only expressed on the X chromosome, and it can downregulate Th2 responses (which are CD4+ helper T cells regulating antibody-mediated immunity, a major part of the immune system). Figuring out the mechanics of the puzzle may eventually lead to a cure for severely debilitating autoimmune diseases - that would be wonderful.
By the end of the week, I performed a mini-takedown myself. I harvested and mashed the spleen, counted the cells, diluted and resuspended, and titrated the antibodies to find the correct titer for use in future experiments.
Overall, it was a great week. Summer is going by so quickly - only one more week here!