Researchers at the university of medicine in St. Louis have done experiments in mice and found that some immune cells stay in only one organ. So far researchers have found that the liver, skin and, uterus have immune cells that never leave the organs. they first found these in lab rats. one thing researchers think they can do with this information is that they can create drugs to activate just these immune responses, which would create a more selective weapon against pathogens. one researcher named Dorthy Sojka PhD. experimented with transcriptions factors, during development of these immune cells. what she found is turning off certain transcription factors only affected one type of immune cell.
NOS Themes
collaborative- many researchers worked on the project
role of credibility- one researcher is Wane Yokoyama who works as a Howard Hughes medical investigator. also Dorthy Sojka who is a post doctoral researcher
Link
http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2014/04/17/some_immune_cells_defend_only_1_organ.html
Something that intrigues me is how these immune cells get to the organs in the first place if none enter or leave. Do they develop from stem cells? It's good that they are working on drugs that can activate these unique immune cells without damaging the nearby tissues as well, and it would be cool to see how this could be used in the future.
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