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Biographies

Jochen Mattner, MD

Assistant Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics

Phone: 513-803-0768

Email: Jochen.Mattner@cchmc.org

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Biography

Dr. Mattner's laboratory studies the role of NKT cells during microbial infection and the impact of their activation on the immune response.

Recently, we could identify self and microbial glycosphingolipid (GSL) ligands that trigger NKT cell activation. This observation led to the characterization of two general modes of NKT cell activation during microbial infection. One pathway involves recognition of endogenous antigen(s) upregulated through TLR signaling by gram-negative LPS-positive bacteria like Salmonella. The other involves direct recognition of microbial GSLs, the LPS substitutes in Sphingomonas and related alphaproteobacteria suggesting that NKT cells represent a major innate recognition pathway for this class of bacteria.

Based on recent compelling evidence that patients with Primary Biliary Cirrhosis (PBC) are seropositive for Sphingomonas and exhibit NKT cell redistribution to the liver, we could establish a mouse model of infection-triggered autoimmunity of the liver. As our previous work had identified microbial glycosphingolipid (GSL) ligands in the cell wall of Sphingomonas that trigger NKT cell activation (see above) and as the development of liver disease was CD1d dependent, we concluded that exposure to Sphingomonas facilitates the production of auto-antibodies against PBC antigens and the induction of auto-reactive T cells due to NKT cell help. In that context, the preferential activation of NKT cells in the liver, where NKT cells are abundant and Sphingomonas preliminarily persists, may explain the biased autoreactivity towards autoantigens exposed in the liver environment and, ultimately, the severe organ-specific manifestations of Sphingomonas infection.

The major focus of the laboratory is now to explore the intriguing possibility that some forms of autoimmune PBC may be triggered by infection with Sphingomonas or related bacteria.

Education and Training

MD: University of Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany, 2001.

Postdoc Scholar: University of Chicago, Department of Pathology, 2003-2005.

Research Associate / Assistant Professor: Department of Pathology, 2006-2007.

Publications

View PubMed Publications