Department of General Surgery (Division of Visceral Surgery)
Position: Associate Professor
ORCID: 0000-0003-2891-7155
T +43 1 40400 73513
rudolf.oehler@meduniwien.ac.at
Keywords
Allergy and Immunology; Biotechnology; Cell Biology; Cell Culture Techniques; Granulocyte Immunology; Molecular Biology; Oncology
Research group(s)
- Surgical Research Laboratories
Head: Michael Bergmann
Research Area: The task of the laboratory is to combine molecular/cellular biology and the needs posed by surgical patients. Thus, the laboratory acts at the interface between clinical medicine and basic research, promoting translational medical science.
Members: - CCC Tumorimmunology
Members:
Research interests
Our research group investigates the role of the immune system in the development of colorectal cancer and inflammatory bowel diseases.
The intestinal immune system is constantly exposed to various food antigens as well as microbial molecules and metabolites. A healthy gut immunology must balance tolerance to foreign molecules with successful control of invading microbes. Overreaction can lead to inflammatory bowel disease, whereas excessive tolerance can allow malignant cancer cells to develop.
To understand the causes of such dysregulations, we dissect healthy and inflamed intestinal tissue, as well as colorectal cancer and its metastases, and investigate the interplay of immune cells with each other and with other cell types of the intestine, such as epithelial cells, fibroblasts and tumor cells. For this purpose, we perform various phenotypic and functional studies in tissue but also with isolated cells in 3D cultures.
Rudolf Oehler is particularly interested in the role of different forms of cell death (apoptosis, necroptosis, necrosis, etc.) in the immunological events of colon cancer. Tumor growth is always associated with cell death of individual tumor cells and in surrounding tissues. In addition, cancer treatments such as chemotherapy lead to increased cell death. Dying cells release certain molecules that are recognized by cells of the innate immune system such as macrophages or granulocytes. We could show that these cells then release anti-inflammatory molecules that inhibit an immune response against the tumor. Furthermore, also non-professional phagocytes contributes to the clearance of apoptotic cells. Here we are especially interested in the role of fibroblasts.
The goal of the research is to specifically inhibit this escape mechanism of the tumor from the immune system.
Techniques, methods & infrastructure
Standard molecular biology assays including qPCR, Western, ELISA, cell culture, flow cytometry. Qantitative immunohistochemistry, functional cell assays, two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, ptoteomics, CRC clinical data, CRC Tumorbank
Selected publications
- Ramos, C., Gerakopoulos, V. and Oehler, R. (2024) ‘Metastasis-associated fibroblasts in peritoneal surface malignancies’, British Journal of Cancer, 131(3), pp. 407–419. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-024-02717-4.
- Ramos, C. and Oehler, R. (2024) ‘Clearance of apoptotic cells by neutrophils in inflammation and cancer’, Cell Death Discovery, 10(1). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41420-024-01809-7.
- Brandel, V. et al. (2022) ‘Hepatectomy-induced apoptotic extracellular vesicles stimulate neutrophils to secrete regenerative growth factors’, Journal of Hepatology, 77(6), pp. 1619–1630. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2022.07.027.
- Schimek, V. et al. (2022) ‘Tumour cell apoptosis modulates the colorectal cancer immune microenvironment via interleukin-8-dependent neutrophil recruitment’, Cell Death & Disease, 13(2). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41419-022-04585-3.
- Walterskirchen, N. et al. (2022) ‘Metastatic colorectal carcinoma-associated fibroblasts have immunosuppressive properties related to increased IGFBP2 expression’, Cancer Letters, 540, p. 215737. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canlet.2022.215737.