immune response tagged posts

In doing so, a researcher has found it could protect men from stomach inflammation. Autoimmune diseases have something in common with horses, bachelor’s degrees and daily flossing habits: women are more likely to have them.

One reason for autoimmune diseases’ prevalence in women may be sex-based differences in inflammation. In a new study, West Virginia University researcher Jonathan Busada investigated how sex hormones affect stomach inflammation in males and females. He found that androgens — or male sex hormones — may help to keep stomach inflammation in check.

“Stomach cancer is primarily caused by rampant inflammation,” said Busada, an assistant professor in the School of Medicine and researcher with the Cancer Institute...

Like finding that needle in the haystack every time, your T cells manage what seems like an improbable task: Quickly finding a few invaders among the many imposters in your body to trigger its immune response.

T cells have to react fast and do so nearly perfectly to protect people from diseases. But first, they need a little “me” time.

Rice University researchers suggest that has to do with how T cells “relax” in the process of binding to ligands—shor...

High-protein paternal diet confers an advantage to sons in sperm competition. Biology Letters, 2017; 13 (2): 20160914 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2016.0914

New research involving Monash University biologists has debunked the view that males just pass on genetic material and not much else to their offspring. Instead, it found a father’s diet can affect their son’s ability to out-compete a rival’s sperm after mating. The study sought to understand if the nutritional history of fathers had an effect on their sons. Experiments were carried out in the fruit fly, which shares many similar pathways and characteristics with human genes.

Dr Susanne Zajitschek from the School of Biological Sciences, said the study highlighted the importance of the paternal environment on future generations, even a long time b...

Highlights • Gut microbes show a dichotomy in ecological strategy for access to nitrogen • Beneficial microbes are overrepresented in the endogenous N source guild • Diets that reduce availability of dietary N to microbes promote healthy aging • Diet impact on host-microbiome interaction can be simplified for modeling

Scientists are one step closer to understanding the link between different diet strategies and gut health, with new research presenting the first general principles for how diet impacts the microbiota. Researchers from the University of Sydney have found that the availability of intestinal nitrogen to microbes in the gut plays a key role in regulating interactions between gut microbes and their host animal.

“This research really lays the groundwork for future modellin...