Rhodes, Simone

Sexually Dimorphic Effects of LPS on Microglia and Neuroinflammation

My name is Simone Rhodes and I am a senior at DePaul. I am enrolled in the combined BS/MS program at DePaul and am majoring in Biological Sciences and minoring in Spanish. I have been president of the DePaul Red Cross Club for the past 4 years. I joined Dr. Bell’s lab at the end of my freshman year, and will be completing my master’s thesis in her lab next year. Outside of school I have been a tutor/nanny throughout college.

Major: Biological Sciences

Minor: Spanish

Senior, College of Science and Health

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Abstract

Microglia are the resident immune cells in the brain, but have recently been implicated in several neurodegenerative and mood disorders. Microglia are hormone sensitive, and their roles and responses to stress and injury are often sexually dimorphic. Although microglia and many diseases are known to be sexually dimorphic, the exact nature and etiology of these differences is still unknown. Therefore, the goal of this study is to determine whether adult rat microglial morphological responses to immune activation are sexually dimorphic via histological analysis, contextualize these findings with existing literature, and then relate these sex differences to human responses to environmental stressors and disease prevalence.

Thesis Director: Dr. Margaret Bell

Department: Biological Sciences

Faculty Reader: Dr. Sandra Virtue

Department: Psychology

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Narrated Project Poster