Just where in the body immune cells reach maturity is
important for their later function
Regulatory T cells (or “Tregs” for short) play a central
role in the human immune system: They guide all of the other immune cells and
make sure they are tolerant of the body’s own cells and harmless foreign
substances. How Tregs become Tregs in the first place has been only
incompletely understood – until now. Scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for
Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany, along with their colleagues at
the Hannover Medical School (MHH) have recently gleaned important new insights
into the workings of these cells. As it turns out, origin is key – greater
numbers of Tregs are produced within certain lymph nodes than in others. The
researchers are now publishing their insights in the scientific journal Mucosal
Immunology.