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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Immunodefense in Tunicates: Cells and Molecules

subject

description

There are several reasons for analyzing tunicate immune systems. First, they can be established as primitive models for understanding fundamental immunological mechanisms by analyzing their individual cells and molecular products either in vivo or in vitro. Discovered mechanisms could provide alternatives to traditional (vertebrate) mammalian (mouse, rat) and emerging models (fish, amphibian reptile) in answering basic questions concerning immunity and disease in protochordates, the ancestors of vertebrates. Second in vitro, biochemical, immunochemical, and serological analyses coupled with molecular approaches are useful as we search for common molecules (e.g. markers of lymphocyte-like cells) essential in identifying the details of immune defense responses. Third, tunicates exhibit the capacity for cell mediated immunity (e.g. histo-incompatibility, cytotoxicity) and humoral immunity the synthesis and secretion of soluble molecules which inactivate particulate antigens (e.g. lectins, defensins, cytokine-like molecules).