Role of B cells(????) in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.....

[Randall H. Friedline]

	Greetings to all!  I have a question that perhaps someone out
	there can answer.  I am proposing as a possible Pre-lim topic the
	study of the role of B cells in IBD (inflammatory bowel disease).
	An advantage, which is also a disadvantage, is the lack of
	information on this topic in the literature.  I was curious if
	anyone knew of pertinent data relating to this subject that might
	not be easily obtained or hasn't been published.  I have performed
	multiple Medline searches and scanned issues of Gastroenterology
	and Digestive diseases and Science for articles but haven't found
	too many.  I am also aware of the mouse models that have been
	generated (i.e. IL-2 -/-, IL-10 -/-, TCR Mutant, C3H/HejBir) and
	some of their possible uses.
		My concerns are these: 1) someone has published beautiful
articles concerning this topic which I have missed 2) This topic has shown
to be a complete dead-end as they haven't any role whatsoever, according
to data by XXX et. al. (if you get my drift)....  Opinions on the merit of
this topic as a pre-lim topic (which consists of a grant proposal) are
also welcome (of course, I've got to design all of my own experiments....)
	Any thoughts are welcome. Thank-you for your time.  My email
	address is: friedr at med.unc.edu


		-Randy
		friedr at med.unc.edu