| Affiliations: | |
| Project Leader: | Agostino Buono ABuono@cvm.tamu.edu Dept of Small Animal Clinical Sciences |
| Faculty Mentor: | Joerg Steiner, DVM, Ph.D. |
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Meeting Times:
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Summer 2016 (complete) |
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Team Size:
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2 (Team Full) |
| Open Spots: | 0 |
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Special Opportunities:
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The student will be part of an active research group and will follow each part of the research, exploring the research field. |
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Team Needs:
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The student should have a strong curiosity, willingness to hard-work to achieve results, and good writing. No other skills are necessary. |
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Description:
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Canine Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a common cause of chronic gastrointestinal disease characterized by unspecific clinical signs such as anorexia, vomiting, diarrhea, and weight loss. In human medicine, the term IBD comprises both Crohn’s Disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC). Currently, histopathologic evaluation is needed to confirm the diagnosis of canine IBD. Histopathological examination in dogs can differentiate between different types of IBD based on cell type of infiltration: Lymphocytic-Plasmacytic Enteritis, Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis, granunolamotous colitis and suppurative enteritis. In our lab, we are currently working on several different markers of inflammation. Cytokines are small proteins released by a wide variety of cells. These proteins are an important part of the cell signaling and are able to mediate immunity, inflammation and other processes. Cytokines in feces should reflect the “status-quo” of the intestinal wall inflammation. This is a challenging project since cytokines are unstable proteins and the student team will develop a fecal extraction method that will preserve cytokines and once the extraction protocol is completed we will measure different cytokines in feces from healthy dogs and dogs affected by IBD. The identification of novel non-invasive canine IBD biomarkers will be a milestone in IBD research. It will shorten the diagnostic process, assess the type of cell infiltrates and the subsequent kind of inflammation and avoid clinical processes that could endanger the patient’s life. |