A LITTLE re-education could work wonders for the cells that provoke the
immune attack on a transplanted organ. They could be taught to tell the immune
system to ignore the organ instead.
Activating either one of two genes in these cells does the trick, Nicole
Suciu-Foca Columbia University in New York and her colleagues have discovered.
The finding may also help explain why the immune system sometimes attacks its
owner’s body, and how certain viruses and bacteria evade it. “The implications
are potentially enormous,” says Suciu-Foca.
Immune cells recognise other body cells as “self” because they all have the
same…
