Danger signals and dendritic cells in coronary heart disease

Metabolic Programming of arterial wall dendritic cell differentiation as a key event in the development of vascular inflammation in atherosclerosis

In this Intermediate Research Fellowship, Dr Paula Longhi, working at Queen Mary, University of London, will investigate how dendritic cells of the immune system contribute to atherosclerosis, the disease that underlies coronary heart disease. In atherosclerosis, fatty plaques build up within the wall of blood vessels. Immune cells also accumulate in these fatty plaques and this inflammatory reaction affects the progress of disease. Certain immune cells, called dendritic cells, act as controllers of the immune response. Dendritic cells are found in small numbers in the artery wall where they sample the environment to recognize ‘danger signals’, for instance, bacteria, and they activate ‘effector cells’ to fight the danger. However, occasionally dendritic cells can misinterpret environmental factors like fat deposits in the artery, or areas of low oxygen (which occur in fatty plaques), as danger signals and initiate an unwanted immune response. Dr Longhi aims to understand how exactly dendritic cells are activated in atherosclerosis. Understanding these processes could lead to new treatments for the condition.