The Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing is an academic center affiliated with the Division of Toxicological Sciences in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

 

Johns Hopkins School of Public Health

Research Grants 2005-2006

Non-animal methodology to assess developmental immunotoxicology

Kathleen M. Brundage, PhD
West Virginia University

In the body, the immune system is important for maintaining the health of an individual by detecting and destroying damaged cells, bacteria, and viruses. An important player in this system is the white blood cell known as a B lymphocyte or B cell. B cells are responsible for making proteins known as antibodies that specifically attach themselves to bacteria or viruses aiding in their elimination from the body. Little is known about the consequences of chemical exposure on the developing human immune system (immunotoxicity). The majority of studies that have been performed have used animal data to assess human risk. In this study we will use human umbilical cord blood cells to assay the effect that chemicals have on B cell development. Ethanol (alcohol) will be used to test this assay system. Ethanol was chosen for several reasons including that fetal exposure to ethanol is common due to consumption of alcohol by pregnant women and mouse studies have demonstrated a decrease in the number of certain types of B cells in mice exposed in the womb to ethanol. A second part of this project will be to identify protein markers that may be useful in developing screening methods for immunotoxicity. The overall goal of this project is to establish a safe, reliable, non-animal method for evaluating immunotoxicity of B cells in the human immune system.