Journal of Clinical and Cellular Immunology
Open Access
ISSN: 2155-9899
ISSN: 2155-9899
Graduate Program in Neuroscience, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Short Commentary
Chromatin Dynamics and Genetic Variation Combine to Regulate Innate Immune Memory
Author(s): Jennifer Kim and Annie Vogel Ciernia*
Recent work by Ciernia et al. (2020) identified how genetic and epigenetic mechanisms interact to regulate innate
immune memory in bone marrow derived macrophages. The authors examined the BTBR strain, a naturally
occurring mouse model of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) that captures the complex genetics, behavioral and
immune dysregulation found in the human disorder. Immune cell cultures from the BTBR strain compared to the
standard C57 showed hyper-responsive immune gene expression that was linked to altered chromatin accessibility at
sites with genetic differences between the strains. Together, findings from this work demonstrated that multiple levels
of gene regulation likely dictate the formation of innate immune memory and are likely disrupted in immune cells in
ASD. Future work will be needed to extend these findings to immune gene regulation in the brain a.. View More»
DOI:
10.35248/2155-9899.20.11.595