IL-17RA and IL-17RC signaling in hematopoietic and non-hematopoietic cells

Cell death is one aspect of biological responses that mammalian cells respond to environmental stimuli. A wide range of pathogenic microorganism can cause cell death. There are two major types of cell death, apoptosis and necrosis. Upon infection, the cells go on different cell death pathways when they receive different signals, and the utilization of different way of dying and the rate of cell death will have a great impact on the outcome of infection. Proinflammatory cytokine signals are a major type of signals that mammalian cells receive through corresponding cytokine receptors during infection. Interleukin 17 (IL-17) is one of them. This research program will examine how the signals transmitted by IL-17 receptor (IL-17R) control the cell death program in two different types of cells, non-hematopoietic tissue structure cells and hematopoietic immune cells, upon infection with an intracellular bacterium called Chlamydia trachomatis. We have good reasons to believe that two subunits (IL-17RA and IL-17RC) of IL-17R may have different roles in regulating this fundamental biological process.