Place: 4274 Chamberlin Hall (Refreshments will be served)
Speaker: Deane Mosher, UW Department of Biomolecular Chemistry
Abstract: Eosinophils are granular leukocytes (white cells) that are relatively scarce in blood but more common in tissues. Tissue eosinophils contribute to tissue homeostasis in the gut and other organs and are a prominent component of inflammation associated with malignancies, viral and helminthic infections, allergic diseases such as asthma, and orderly tissue repair. Among leukocytes, eosinophils are exceptional in a number of ways—content of eosinophilic granules; complement of receptors and other molecules that control activation and trafficking; complement of mediator-generating enzymes; and polarization upon activation into a granular compartment and a nucleopod, a specialized protrusion occupied by the nucleus. I will describe a series of related processes that target blood eosinophils to the bronchial tree of asthmatic patients.