Award for Research on Leukocyte Trafficking

Christoph Reichel, PI of the SFB 914, was awarded this year’s Georg Heberer Award for his research on leukocyte trafficking. He was honored for his work on the role of chemokines during the extravasation of neutrophils, published in 2012. A current publication focusing on the interstitial migration of leukocytes continues this work on leukocyte trafficking.

In his work published in Blood in 2012 (1), Christoph Reichel and co-workers demonstrated the significance of C-C motif chemokines for the recruitment of neutrophils to sites of inflammation in the tissue. Previously unknown mechanistic details of how the inflammatory mediators exert their specific effects were demonstrated using in vivo microscopy studies.

The Georg Heberer Award, endowed by the US-American Chiles Foundation and awarded to LMU scientists since 2000, supports young scientists working on current topics in the field of surgery.

Interstitial migration guided by tissue density

Continuing their work on leukocyte trafficking, Christoph Reichel and co-workers recently published new findings on interstitial migration (2). As shown by multi-photon laser scanning in vivo microscopy, increased density of the collagen network due to inflammation physically guides the neutrophils in the tissue. The migration process, however, does not require pericellular degradation of the collagen network.

The researchers also found blockade of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) to influence the expression of adhesion and signaling molecules on the neutrophils, leading to the conclusion that MMPs modulate interstitial migration.

Publications:

(1) Christoph A. Reichel, Daniel Puhr-Westerheide, Gabriele Zuchtriegel, Bernd Uhl, Nina Berberich, Stefan Zahler, Matthias P. Wymann, Bruno Luckow, Fritz Krombach (2012) C-C motif chemokine CCL3 and canonical neutrophil attractants promote neutrophil extravasation through common and distinct mechanisms.
Blood 120(4):880-90

(2) Max Lerchenberger, Bernd Uhl, Konstantin Stark, Gabriele Zuchtriegel, Annekathrin Eckart, Meike Miller, Daniel Puhr-Westerheide, Marc Praetner, Markus Rehberg, Alexander G. Khandoga, Kirsten Lauber, Steffen Massberg, Fritz Krombach, Christoph A. Reichel (2013) Matrix metalloproteinases modulate ameboid-like migration of neutrophils through inflamed interstitial tissue.
Blood 122(5):770-80

Contact:

Dr. med. Christoph Andreas Reichel
Klinik und Poliklinik für Hals-Nasen-Ohrenheilkunde, Kopf- und Halschirurgie
LMU München
Marchioninistr. 15
81377 München
christoph.reichel@med.uni-muenchen.de