Methods in molecular biology
-
Allergic asthma is a chronic inflammatory lung disease mediated by type 2 cytokines produced by T helper 2 (Th2) cells as well as the recently discovered group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2). Due to a lack of unique markers, the accurate phenotypic characterization and quantification of ILC2 requires a comprehensive panel of fluorescently labeled antibodies. ⋯ ILC2 are also activated in mouse models of allergic asthma based on the physiologically relevant house dust mite (HDM) allergen, which parallel eosinophilic airway inflammation observed in asthma patients. Here, we describe the analysis of ILC2 by flow cytometry in these two commonly used allergic airway inflammation models in the mouse.
-
With the advent of high-throughput genomic and proteomic techniques, there is a massive amount of multidimensional data being generated and has increased several orders of magnitude. But the amount of data that is cataloged in the central repositories and shared publicly with the scientific community does not correlate the same rate at which the data is generated. Here, in this chapter, we discuss various proteomics data repositories that are freely accessible to the researchers for further downstream meta-analysis.
-
Glycosylation of membrane proteins plays a crucial role in various physiological events, including intercellular recognition and intermolecular interactions on the cell surface (Gornik et al., Biochim Biophys Acta 1820:1318-1326, 2012). To study composition and function of N-glycans on membrane proteins one has to have an efficient and reproducible analytical method, which includes protein extraction and analysis of glycans. In this chapter we provide an analytical approach that includes cloud-point extraction (CPE) of total membrane proteins with the non-ionic detergent Triton X-114 and subsequent analysis of their N-glycans using hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC)-UPLC/HPLC. The protocol presented here can be used for parallel analysis of both membrane and intracellular proteins.
-
Allergic asthma is a heterogeneous inflammatory lung disease affecting millions of people worldwide and with a steadily increasing incidence. Mouse models have been of utmost importance in uncovering key inflammatory cell types, cytokines, and pathways in the development and maintenance of allergic asthma. ⋯ Here, we describe an often used and relevant HDM-based protocol to establish acute allergic asthma, and the methods we have developed to rapidly analyze inflammatory cell infiltration in the bronchalveolar lavage fluid by flow cytometry. Moreover, we explain the methods to restimulate T cells from lung-draining mediastinal lymph nodes with HDM to allow the measurement of cytokine secretion profiles of allergen reactive T cells.