A T cell (green) is seen moving with the flow of blood before crawling against it and exiting the blood vessel.Ingo Bartholomaeus et al, Nature 2009Posted on 10/16/2009 9:14:49 PM PDT by neverdem
Videos show T cells breaching the central nervous system's defences.
A T cell (green) is seen moving with the flow of blood before crawling against it and exiting the blood vessel.Ingo Bartholomaeus et al, Nature 2009Despite being surrounded by a supposedly unbreachable defensive line, the body's central nervous system can still be attacked by autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis.
Now, researchers led by Alexander Flügel, director of the Institute for Multiple Sclerosis Research at the University Medical Centre in Göttingen, Germany, have watched in real time as T cells — blood cells linked to the immune response — penetrate the central nervous system of rats and manifest as a disease.
"There's a question about how immune cells that attack the brain get entry because [it] is shielded by the blood-brain barrier," Flügel says. Histological studies have clearly shown immune cells can enter brain tissue, but no one has seen this happen until now. "Our question was, can we visualize this process?" he says.
To answer this question Flügel's team labelled some disease-causing T cells with green fluorescent protein and introduced them into the veins of rats. Then, using infrared lasers in a technique called two-photon imaging, they watched the movements of the cells as they caused experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, an animal model of multiple sclerosis. The work is reported in Nature1.
Only recently has the technology needed for all these elements become sophisticated enough to make this work possible, says Flügel.
Unexpectedly, the researchers found that some assumptions about how T cells gain entry to the nervous system are misplaced. Textbook knowledge, says Flügel, is that the cells roll along blood vessels then attach and migrate into the nervous-system tissue.
Instead, as illustrated in the linked videos, his team found that after rolling along the the inside of the vessel, the cells stop then crawl back against the flow of blood before exiting the vessel. Also, once they have passed through the vessel they do not immediately infiltrate the nervous-system tissue. Rather, they continue to crawl along the outside of the vessels until they meet another type of blood cell, called phagocytes. Only then do they enter the nervous system and begin to manifest the disease.
The findings both improve researchers' understanding of how some treatments work and identify which structures involved in the movement of the T cells might be useful to target with future therapies.
T cells — blood cells linked to the immune response
I would have thought T cells are part of the immune system.
merrily we roll along (not)
WOW!THAT IS AMAZING!
Cheers!
Researchers create portable black hole: Mini-hole made of metamaterials ensnares microwave light.
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
That seems contradictory.
That seems contradictory.
&&&
I think that the problem is that in certain disorders such as MS one’s immune response “overachieves” by not only attacking antigens but also attacking the patient’s own healthy cells.
Pretty cool technology shown here. I hope they are close to a cure for MS.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.