Word: thymus
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Diabetes researchers believe that the disorder is caused by some type of immune reaction gone awry - immune cells are "trained" in the thymus gland to recognize the body's own cells and protect them from destruction. For some reason, this education doesn't occur properly in Type 1 diabetes patients, and the immune system sees the pancreatic beta cells as foreign. Melton's team is currently working to generate thymus cells from diabetic patients in the same way the team created the beta cells, in order to put all the players together in a lab dish, in a kind...
...researchers are hoping to learn whether diabetes begins in the thymus or in the pancreas, where beta cells somehow change and are no longer recognized or protected by the immune system. "We still really don't know the mechanism of what causes this disease," says Melton. "We don't know which cell is initially responsible, and we don't know if certain people are destined to get it, or if there are things we can do to prevent it, or how to reverse...
...Dieu Hospital. The doctors wanted to treat David while he was still in his mother's womb because they thought if the procedure was done early, it would have better odds of succeeding. They took 7 cc of liquid, containing about 16 million immune cells from the liver and thymus of two aborted fetuses, and injected the material into David's umbilical cord. After he was born, David received an injection of more cells. Blood tests indicate that the transplanted cells have multiplied in David's liver, spleen and bone marrow -- signs that his immune system may become normal...
...immune systems. Because of a genetic abnormality known as SCID (for severe combined immunodeficiency), these mice usually die at an early age, often of pneumocystis pneumonia, the disease that kills many AIDS patients. The researchers implanted some 300 of the defective mice with tissue taken from human fetal thymus, where certain immune and blood cells develop, and with blood-forming cells from fetal liver. The implanted tissues soon produced mature human T cells, specialized white blood cells that help provide immunity against disease. Mice that additionally received fetal lymph tissue -- needed for the functioning of some immune cells -- also developed...
...American newborns a year. Most die by age two. Children with SCID lack specialized white blood cells called Tcells, which help defend the body against viruses and other invaders. T-cells are ordinarily produced in an immature form in the bone marrow and come to maturity in the thymus (hence the T). The only cure for SCID is a transplant of healthy marrow, a bloodlike fluid found in large bones. But such transplants are difficult, since donated marrow must be carefully matched to the white-cell type of the recipient, far more complex than simply matching...