HESTEFORSK Immune reactivity in the intestinal mucosa of healthy horses and of horses with chronic inflammatory bowel disease (H0947249)

In the horse, the immune system of the intestine is only little explored and the knowledge of the immunopthogenesis of intestinal inflammation is poor, which is an obstacle to effective therapies. This project aims at new knowledge of (1) the normal immun ology of the intestinal lymhoid tissue and (2) immunological reactivity in the intestine in chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), with the hypothesis that this develops as a result of locally dysregulated immune activity. The intestine will be examine d in rectal biopsies and post mortem material of both healthy and diseases horses. Immune cells will be phenotyped by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and cytokine activity in the mucosa will be analyzed with qRT-PCR and IHC. Immunohistological evaluation will employ digital image analysis and results will be correlated to histopathology. The cytokine production of cultured intestinal immune cells as a response to PAMP signalling will be compared between healthy horses and IBD cases.