Initiation to multiple sclerosis

2009/10/15 Lakar Iraizoz, Oihane - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Biokimika
• Anatomia/Fisiologia
• Osasuna

Click on the image to view the video (Ingo Bartholomaeus et al, Nature)

At the Institute for Multiple Sclerosis Research in Göttingen, Germany, they have seen in real time how T cells enter the nervous system of rats. This has allowed them to better understand how one of the most common neurological diseases that cause these cells, multiple sclerosis.

T cells are one of the components of the body's immune system, differentiating body cells from foreign cells. In patients with multiple sclerosis, for example, neurons are treated as foreign and attacked bodies. Specifically, remove the cover of neurons, myelin.

For this to happen, T cells must reach through the blood vessels to the tissues of the nervous system. The experts proposed a possible explanation of the process and considered it good, but could not see it first hand. They have achieved it now.

The images taken show unexpected behaviors. In fact, they have seen that before leaving the blood vessel to reach the nerve tissue, T cells go back in the blood vessels in the opposite direction to blood flow. Also, once they leave the blood vessel, they do not enter directly into the nervous tissue. They remain outside the blood vessels until their union with phagocytes, when they enter the nervous system and begin to cause damage.

Image: Image: To the left, image observed in the investigation and, to the right, a scheme of it. In green T cells appear, in red blood and blood vessel and in blue the brain. Ingo Bartholomaeus