http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Raising hopes for cell-based therapies, UC San Francisco researchers have created the first functioning human thymus tissue from embryonic stem cells in the laboratory. The researchers showed that, in mice, the tissue can be used to foster the development of white blood cells the body needs to mount healthy immune responses and to prevent harmful autoimmune reactions. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-stem-cell-based-strategy-boosts-immune-mice.html Immunology Thu, 16 May 2013 12:00:03 EST news287923006 The tiny thymus teaches the immune system to ignore the teeming, foreign bacteria in the gut that helps you digest and absorb food, researchers say. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-thymus-immune-cells-vital-gut.html Immunology Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:04:49 EST news286455882 (Medical Xpress)—Replicative aging (also known as replicative senescence) causes mammalian cells to undergo a process of growth arrest dependent on telomeres (the shortening of repeated sequences at the ends of chromosomes). Neurons, on the other hand, are exempt from aging, and so the question of their actual lifespan has remained unanswered. Recently, however, scientists at the University of Pavia and the University of Turin demonstrated that neuronal lifespan is not limited by the organism's maximum lifespan but, remarkably, continues when transplanted in a longer-living host. The researchers accomplished this by transplanting embryonic mouse cerebellar precursors into the developing brain of longer-living rats, in which the grafted mouse neurons survived for up to three years – twice the average lifespan of the donor mice. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-neuronal-organismal-lifespans-decoupled.html Neuroscience Wed, 27 Mar 2013 16:30:01 EST news283619237 Semi-invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells wage war against infectious threats, attacking microbial cells and generating signals that enable other immune cells also to respond aggressively. iNKT cells initially undergo activation in the thymus; after being 'switched on' via interaction with certain antigens, they undergo an initial population expansion and then migrate to peripheral immune sites where they proliferate further so they can mount an effective defense. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-lipids-thymus-immune-cells-boost.html Immunology Wed, 12 Sep 2012 08:50:28 EST news266658616 (Medical Xpress) -- When the body makes immune T cells, it relies on a molecular channel more commonly seen in nerves and heart muscles to ensure that the powerful T cells have the right mixture of aggressiveness and restraint, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-immune-heart-channel-powerful-defenders.html Immunology Thu, 16 Aug 2012 18:11:43 EST news264359488 (Medical Xpress) -- An indication of whether a mother will develop pre-eclampsia, the most common and severe pregnancy-related disease, has been identified by a University of Sydney study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-clue-pre-eclampsia.html Immunology Wed, 09 May 2012 08:52:41 EST news255772351 An international research team led by scientists from Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN) under the Agency of Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) discovered that a special class of fatty molecules is essential for activating a unique group of early-responding immune cells. This study sheds light on how recognition of fatty molecules by immune cells could protect from infection, allergic reactions, autoimmune diseases and cancer. More importantly, it offers new opportunities to exploit the use of these stimulatory fatty molecules in therapeutic interventions, such as the development of new vaccines and drugs targetted for autoimmune diseases. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-scientists-special-class-natural-fats.html Immunology Mon, 02 Apr 2012 10:07:57 EST news252580068 The thymus plays a key role in the body's immune response. It is here where the T lymphocytes or T cells, a major type of immune defence cells, mature. Different types of T cells, designated to perform specific tasks, arise from progenitor cells that migrate to the thymus from the bone marrow. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Immunology and Epigenetics in Freiburg have generated artificial thymus tissue in a mouse embryo to enable the maturation of immune cells. In this process, they discovered which signalling molecules control the maturation of T cells. Their results represent the first step towards the production of artificial thymus glands that could be used to replace or augment the damaged organ. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-artificial-thymus-tissue-enables-maturation.html Immunology Thu, 29 Mar 2012 12:00:07 EST news252239826 Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) scientists have developed a way to recreate an individual's immune system in a mouse. The "personalized immune mouse" offers researchers an unprecedented tool for individualized analysis of abnormalities that contribute to type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases, starting at the onset of disease. The findings were published today in the online edition of Science Translational Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-personalized-immune-mouse-tool-autoimmune.html Immunology Wed, 14 Mar 2012 14:00:20 EST news250952120 (HealthDay) -- Vitamin D3 analogs modulate immunity in human psoriasis, inducing thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) and cathelicidin, according to a study published online March 2 in the British Journal of Dermatology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-vitamin-d-analogs-modulate-immunity.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:50:03 EST news250517960 A new study provides evidence that a critical type of immune cell can develop in human tonsils. The cells, called T lymphocytes, or T cells, have been thought to develop only in the thymus, an organ of the immune system that sits on the heart. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-tonsils-cells.html Medical research Mon, 05 Mar 2012 16:46:07 EST news250188341 T-cells are the immune system's security force. They seek out pathogens and rogue cells in the body and put them out of action. Their precursors are formed in the bone marrow and migrate from there into the thymus. Here, they mature and differentiate to perform a variety of tasks. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg have now succeeded for the first time in observing the maturation of immune cells in live zebrafish embryos. During their development, the immune cells migrate into and out of the thymus more than once. The zebrafish is thus an ideal animal model for studying the dynamic processes of immune cell development. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-thymus-t-cells.html Medical research Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:41:46 EST news248704887 Higher surgical costs for adult congenital heart patients is associated with higher rates of inpatient death compared to surgical admissions that incur lower costs, according to a study in Circulation: Quality and Outcomes, a journal of the American Heart Association. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-adult-congenital-heart-patients-highest.html Cardiology Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:00:03 EST news238155739 In the latest issue of Nature, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania clarify the role of two proteins key to T-cell development. They found that one well-known protein called Notch passes off much of its role during T-cell maturation to another protein called TCF-1. T cells are required for many aspects of immunity, and understanding how these proteins influence the production of infection-fighting cells could improve treatments for immune-suppressed patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-penn-key-molecule-immune-cell.html Medical research Mon, 08 Aug 2011 13:30:06 EST news232025982