09. September 2011
Pathogenic bacteria. (Photo: aspsnet.org)
The human body is so strange and enigmatic that after years of extensive research by doctors and scientists, we still do not know very much about it. The body’s immune function, for example, is a set of complicated chemical reactions that often show unpredictable response to foreign bodies or harmful pathogens. This explains why a person can be immune to a very deadly disease, but may succumb to a mundane one or why some people manage to survive a lethal infection, only to suffer from their secondary side effects. However, a team of scientists from the university of Florida have discovered several key points in the body that play a strong role in initiating a proper immune response.
According to the previous set of experiments performed by professor Matthew Delano, a sub class of white blood cells, known as the B cells, where known to produce a chemical called CXCL10, if it detected any foreign bodies. This chemical is famously known to be a destroyer of most bacterial or viral lifeforms. However, this study contradicts the previous perception of the B cells as they where only known to play a part in creating an immune response and have no connection with the innate or natural immunity of the body. In other words, these B white blood cells where not known to create a response that was strong enough to destroy the foreign matter, until now
On yet another research, these aforementioned scientists observed that a type of protein, known as the stromal cell derived factor 1 or SDF-1 plays a key role in clearing out any infectious cells from the bone marrow, by arranging the release of a white blood cell known as the neutrophils. This white blood cell is known to be powerful enough to fight almost any type of disease or pathogen, however, since they are not produced at the cause of the infection, they fail to eliminate the pathogen completely.
Now that Dr Matthew Delano and professor Kyle Moldawer and their team of researchers have found out the two main body immunity responses, this can pave way for potential vaccines or anti-biotics that can help eliminate pathogens in hard to reach place, like the bone marrow for instance. Besides that, it may even pave way for a better understanding on how white blood cells and proteins play a part in the immunity system of the body. This university was also helped by a couple of more universities like Virginia and Los Angeles and Duke’s university.
(rockefellernews/yk)
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