Objective
Atherosclerosis is the main cause of death in the industrial world. The understanding of the pathogenesis has led to the notion of atherosclerosis as a chronic inflammatory disease. The evidence of a network of vascular-associated dendritic cells (DC) in arteries of healthy young individuals, as well as findings demonstrating an infiltration of atherosclerotic plaques where DC accumulation in close contact with macrophages/ monocytes and T-cells implies an important role of DC suggests a functional role of DC, in the activation of the vascular immune system and in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. So far the molecular mechanisms regulating the recruitment and causative role of DC in the formation of atherosclerotic plaques remains to be elucidated. DC derives from hematopoietic cells but also peripheral monocytes. So far, several different markers have been used to detect DC in atherosclerotic lesions, however, these are of low specificity.
The CCL17 chemokine (also referred to as dendrokine) is expressed only by mature DC. Using an eGFP knock-in, CCL17 knock-out, crossed into the atherosclerosis prone apolipoprotein E deficient (apoE-/-) background, will allow us to specifically study the role of DC in pathological pathways operative in atherosclerosis. The infiltration and localization of DC in atherosclerotic lesions will be studied by detection of GFP-expressing DC in heterozygous CCL17E/+ apoE-/- mice by dual photon microscopy. Double knockout mice will be used to evaluate the role of DC and of their effector chemokines CCL17 in lesion development in native atherosclerosis. Furthermore, in vitro and in vivo assays will be performed to investigate the instruction or modulation of a specific immune response during the initiation and progression of atherosclerotic lesions.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences health sciences inflammatory diseases
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine cardiology cardiovascular diseases arteriosclerosis
- natural sciences physical sciences optics microscopy
- medical and health sciences basic medicine immunology
- natural sciences physical sciences theoretical physics particle physics photons
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Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP6-2005-MOBILITY-5
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Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
MAASTRICHT
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.