Dietary fish oil enhances hallmarks of resolution of inflammation with NK cells playing a key role

BMC Seminar Thursday 9th of February at 12:00 in Læknagarður, room 201

Speaker: Dr. Jóna Freysdóttir, Principal Investigator at Department of Immunology, Landspítali and Professor in Immunology at Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland and Department of Immunology, Landspítali-Hringbraut

Title: Dietary fish oil enhances hallmarks of resolution of inflammation with NK cells playing a key role

Abstract: Chronic inflammation contributes to ~50% of disease-associated deaths worldwide. It arises when resolution of inflammation is not effective. The overall goal of our research is to find means to strengthen resolution of inflammation as it may be a superior therapeutic approach to the traditional targeting of the pro-inflammatory arm of inflammation.  We use a murine model of antigen-induced inflammation and flow cytometry, ELISA, Luminex, immunofluorescence staining, SimpleWestern and LC-MS/MS analysis to determine the effects of treatments on hallmarks of resolution of inflammation. The results show that dietary fish oil increased several key hallmarks of resolution of inflammation in mice. Dietary fish oil also increased the number of NK cells drawn to the inflamed site and we subsequently showed that NK cells are in fact indispensable for resolution of the inflammation. We are currently also using human NK cells to search for ways to induce a resolution phenotype in NK cells. Induction of a resolution phenotype in human NK cells in vitro may open-up avenues for using NK cells in vivo as a treatment for inflammation-associated degenerative and autoimmune diseases.

Short bio: Jóna received a PhD in Immunology from Royal Postgraduate Medical School at Hammersmith Hospital, which is now part of Imperial College in London in 1996. She was a post-doctoral fellow in Oral and Mucosal Immunology at Guy‘s Hospital in London and University of Leeds from 1996 to 2000. She was a Senior Scientist at the Biomedical company Lyfjaþróun from 2000 to 2004. In 2005 she started working at the Immunology department at Landspítali as a principal investigator and heading the science and teaching unit, and in 2011 at University of Iceland where she is now a Professor in Immunology. Jóna is working in close collaboration with Ingibjörg Harðardóttir, professor in Biochemistry. Their current work focuses on finding ways to strengthen resolution of inflammation and understanding the role NK cells play in resolution of inflammation. They have also studied the effects of novel compounds derived from plants and marine invertebrates on immune responses using human monocyte-derived dendritic cells.