Specialized Regulatory T Cell Stifles Antibody Production

[MBombardier]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 132654.htm

The discovery of the germinal center off-switch, which comes two years after Dong and colleagues identified the mechanisms underlying a helper T cell that activates the centers, has potential implications for cancer and autoimmune diseases.

"In some types of cancer, the presence of many regulatory T cells is associated with poor prognosis," Dong said. "The theory is those cells suppress an immune system response in the tumor's microenvironment that otherwise might have attacked the cancer."

However, in B cell lymphomas, overproliferation and mutation of B cells are the problems, Dong said. Hitting the regulatory T cell off-switch might help against lymphomas and autoimmune diseases, while blocking it could permit an immune response against other cancers.

I thought this was very interesting, especially since both my parents had (have) lymphoma, and I figured my chances of getting it at about 100%, at least until I went gluten-free last year.

[tex]

Our problem is just the opposite - our intestines become inflamed because a deficiency of regulatory T-cells allows the immune system to overproduce killer T-cells.

Tex