T cells tagged posts

Research conducted in mice suggests the food additive tert-butylhydroquinone (tBHQ)—found in many common products from frozen meat to crackers and fried foods—suppresses the immune response the body mounts when fighting the flu. In addition to increasing the severity of flu symptoms, the study found evidence that tBHQ exposure could reduce the effectiveness of the flu vaccine through its effects on T cells, a vital component of the immune system.

Researchers say the connection may help explain why seasonal influenza continues to pose a major health threat worldwide. An estimated 290,000-650,000 people globally die from flu-related respiratory problems each year.

“Our studies showed that mice on a tBHQ diet had a weakened immune response to influenz...

A study by UCLA researchers is the first to demonstrate a technique for coaxing pluripotent stem cells – which can give rise to every cell type in the body and which can be grown indefinitely in the lab – into becoming mature T cells capable of killing tumor cells.

The technique uses structures called artificial thymic organoids, which work by mimicking the environment of the thymus, the organ in which T cells develop from blood stem cells.

T cells are cells of the immune system that fight infections, but also have the potential to eliminate cancer cells...

Dietary PUFA regulation of contralateral mammary gland metastasis.

Omega-3 fatty acids, such as those typically contained in fish oil, may suppress the growth and spread of breast cancer cells in mice. This is according to a new study in the journal Clinical & Experimental Metastasis, which is published under the Springer imprint. According to lead author, Saraswoti Khadge of the University of Nebraska Medical Centre in the US, fatty acids stopped further delayed tumors from forming, and blocked the cancerous cells from spreading to other organs in mice. The researchers speculate that this might be because of the way in which omega-3 fatty acids support the body’s immune and anti-inflammatory systems.

Two groups of adult female mice were fed a liquid diet for which the calorie count and pe...

Researchers at Duke Cancer Institute have tracked the missing T-cells in glioblastoma patients in the bone marrow, locked away and unable to function because of a process the brain stimulates in response to glioblastoma, to other tumors that metastasize in the brain and even to injury.
Credit: Alisa Weigandt for Duke Health

A mysterious lack of T-cells has hindered the immune system’s ability to fight glioblastoma. Researchers have tracked the missing T-cells in glioblastoma patients. They found them in abundance in the bone marrow, locked away and unable to function because of a process the brain stimulates in response to glioblastoma, to other tumors that metastasize in the brain and even to injury.

Glioblastoma brain tumors can have an unusual effect on the body’s immune system, often ca...