Impaired Secretory IgA and Mucosal Immunity in Cystic Fibrosis

This project entitled "Impaired secretory IgA and mucosal immunity in cystic fibrosis" is a research program which aims to determine, owing to national (KULeuven) and international (Descartes university Paris, university of Torino) collaborations for expertise and access to human material, whether a defect exists for the production of IgA antibodies in the lung from patients with this serious genetic disease. These antibodies line and protect normally the airways, and are secreted through a specific epithelial receptor called pIgR (polymeric immunoglobulin receptor); its expression and regulation will be studied in lung tissue and in cell cultures of the lung epithelium from these patients. The link between the putative IgA defect and chronic bacterial infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which often complicates the evolution of the disease, will also be evaluated ex vivo and in vivo, in an animal model of lung infection.