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Principal Investigator: Dr. Dorothy Ainsworth
Contact Information: E-mail: dma2@cornell.edu - Phone: 3-3232
Sponsor: USDA - NRI Competitive Grant
Grant Number: 2004-35204-14619
Title: Immune Dysfunction in Horses with Recurrent Airway
Obstruction: The Role of the Airway Epithelium
Annual Direct Cost: $79,302
Project Period: 9/1/04 - 8/31/07
These studies will examine the chronological steps involved in the development of equine recurrent airway obstruction (RAO). This lung inflammatory condition, which resembles human asthma, develops in certain horses exposed to hay. The condition limits the athleticism of horses and contributes to their wastage. In this proposal, the role of the airway epithelium in initiating and in maintaining the pulmonary inflammation would be examined. Specifically the expression of genes known to produce inflammatory proteins would be measured in horses exposed to hay for defined periods of time. Additionally, the reactivity of these airway cells, isolated and grown in cell culture, to hay dust components would be studied to determine the specificity of the hay dust-epithelial cell reactions.
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