Group members:
- Dr. Ildikó Bódi, senior lecturer
- Dr. Krisztina Herberth-Minkó, senior lecturer
- Györgyné Vidra, laboratory assistant
- Dorottya Varga, TDK student (ELTE)
- Emese Huszár, TDK student (ELTE)
Topic:
Our research focuses on understanding the structure and embryonic development of the thymus, the central organ of the immune system. The thymus starts to develop from the epithelium of the pharyngeal pouches during embryonic development. Into this epithelial rudiment later on T lymphocyte progenitors migrate. Experiments with avian embryos have revealed that neural crest cells are also involved in the development of the thymic rudiment, the connective tissue capsule, the septae and the thymic medulla.
The aim of our project is to investigate the role of neural crest cells in the development of thymic structure in avian model systems and in the human thymic structure. In our experiments, we are using embryo manipulation techniques ( neural crest ablation and chicken-quail embryonic chimera technique) to elucidate the role of the neural crest in thymus development. In a clinical collaborative work, we are performing histological and immunocytochemical studies of the thymus of children born with atrial septal defects, revealing previously unrecognised morphological abnormalities. We hypothesize that the presence of an abnormally developing thymus is a pathology appearing parallel with the atrial septal defects, the real cause lying in the defective regulation of signalling processes in the neural crest cells.
We hope that a better understanding of the structure of the thymus may provide a basis for the development of targeted therapeutic approaches.
Applied techniques:
We routinely use traditional morphological techniques (immunocytochemistry, light-, confocal laser scanning- and electron microscopy), embryo manipulation techniques (tracking the fate of neural crest cells with fluorescent nanocrystals, preparation of neural crest chimeras from transgenic chicken embryos expressing green fluorescent proteins, chicken-quail neural crest chimeras, neural crest ablation, gene silencing/overexpression). In addition, we have a number of human thymus samples available.
Collaborating partners:
- Gottsegen György Hungarian Institute of Cardiology, Budapest – Dr. Zsolt Prodán
- Szent László Hospital, Budapest – Dr. Gergely Kriván
- Semmelweis University, 2nd Department of Paediatrics – Dr. Irén Haltrich
- Paris-Saclay Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Development and Evolution of the Neural Crest, Paris, France – Dr. Sophie Creuzet
- Harvard University, Boston Children’s Hospital – Dr. Zoltán Szállási
- Comenius University in Bratislava, Institute of Histology and Embryology, Bratislava, Slovakia – Dr. Iván Varga