Stalking immune cells: a new way to monitor "Mutiny on the Body"

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http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/Stalking/immune/cells/new/way/to/monitor/Mutiny/on/the/Body/elpepusoc/20111201elpepusoc_16/Tes

Just as sailors can turn against their captain, the cells of the immune system, although important for eliminating hazardous pathogens and damaged tissue, can also "turn bad" and have detrimental effects in vulnerable tissues that have a low capacity for healing and regeneration. One such region is the central nervous system (CNS), which comprises the brain and spinal cord.

An example of immune system mutiny in humans is the disease multiple sclerosis, where the cells of the immune system attack the body's own structures in the CNS and induce detrimental damage. Multiple sclerosis is the most common neuroimmunological disease of the CNS in Europe. Approximately 150 out of every 100,000 inhabitants in Germany and roughly 2.5 million people worldwide are affected.

Recent research has shown that mutinous professional immune cells?like macrophages, monocytes, and T cells?initiate and regulate the damage to the CNS in people with multiple sclerosis. Most immune cells are not so badly behaved though: during development the body destroys the potentially bad ones.

The aim of our project in the Department of Cell and Neurobiology at the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin is to identify and illustrate using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) the routes that monocytes and macrophages take in mice after nerve cells have been damaged.

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1. Recommended.

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2. Thanks! Nt