Prof. Tamas Fulop
Participant code: UFC
Prof. Tamas Fulop,
Service de Gériatrie,CHU de Besançon et Équipe de Recherche Vieillissement et Inflammation Université de Franche Comté Faculté de Médecine,
25000 Besançon, France.
Group’s experience:
Prof. Tamas Fulop, M.D., Ph.D is responsible for the laboratory of Biogerontology in the Research Center of Aging at the Université de Sherbrooke and the leader of the Research Group on Aging and Inflammation at the Université de Franche Comté à Besançon. He is a member of the editorial Board of “Biogerontology”, “Archives of Gerontology” and “Geriatrics and Immunogerontology”.
He has a long-standing experience in the study of the immunological changes with aging, with a special interest in the investigation of the functions of T cells and phagocytic cells in healthy aging . He described functional changes in neutrophils and monocytes with aging and was the first to study signal transduction changes in immune cells with aging.
He started to study the phosphatidylinositol hydrolysis and calcium metabolism and found several alterations in the signal transduction pathways in aging mainly in T cells. He was the first to study in human T cells the role of the JAK/STAT pathway under IL-2 stimulation. He described many alteration in the signal transduction pathways with aging (PKC, MAPK, src kinases etc). Recently he became interested in lipid rafts as specific membrane microdomains for signalling and described an alteration in the lipid rafts composition with aging. He has also been interested for a long time in various extrinsic determinants of the immune response such as nutrition.
Particularly the effects of vitamins and micronutrients were studied. His group is also interested in inflammation mainly in relation to atherosclerosis and demonstrated the inflammation inducing effect of oxidized lipids. This leads to the demonstration that oxLDL is a real antigen and induce inflammation.
Finally, the group is also studying the oxidative stress and found that the oxidative stress is interfering with the intracellular signalling in immune cells with aging and is responsible for the alteration of functions with aging. The age-related diseases studied are atherosclerosis, diabetes, hypertension, Alzheimer diseases and infections.
Personnel involved:
1. Prof. Tamas Fulop, (M)group leader, Professor, responsible for work package 5
2. Prof. Jacques Regnard, (M)Professor, leader of the cardiovascular reactivity research group, Université de Franche Comté
3. Prof. Daniel Wendling, (F)Professor, leader of the rheumatic disease and inflammation research group, Université de Franche Comté
4. Dr. Eric Toussirot, (M) senior scientist, expert in lymphokines, inflammation and rheumatic diseases, Université de Franche Comté
5. Prof. Georges Herbein, Head and Professor of Virology Department, Université de Franche Comté
6. Post-doctoral fellow to be appointed (cellular and molecular biology)
7. Post-doctoral fellow to be appointed (confocal and fluorescence microscopy)
8. Post-doctoral fellow to be appointed (cytofluorimetry, Real time PCR and microarrays)
Recent relevant publications:
1. O. Lesur, Kokis A, Hermans C, T. Fulop Jr., Bernard A.. and Lane D. Interleukin-2 (IL-2) involvment in early acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS): relationship with polymorphonuclear apoptosis and patient survival. Critical Care Medicine 28, 3814-3822, 2000
2. Fortun A., Khalil A., Gagné D., Jay-Gerin J.P., Dupuis G, and Fulop T. Jr Modulation of T lymphocyte proliferation and apoptosis by oxidized low density lipoproteins: potential role in atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis 156, 11-21, 2001
3. T. Fülöp Jr., Douziech, N., Goulet A.C., Desgeorges S., Linteau A., Lacombe G. and Dupuis G. Cyclodextrin modulation of T lymphocyte signal transduction with aging. Mech. Age. Dev. 122, 1413-1431, 2001
4. G. Pawelec, K. Hirokawa, T. Fulop. T cell signaling with aging. Mech. Age. Dev. 122, 1613-1637, 2001
5. T. Fülöp Jr., Douziech, N., Larbi, A. and Dupuis G. Role of lipid rafts in T lymphocyte signal transduction with aging. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. . 973, 302-304, 2002.