SCI Immunol: revealing the molecular mechanism of the growth and development of self reactive immune cells

December 7, 2019 / BIOON/ --Shortly after birth, the immune system of the body will complete the production of antibody immune cell B1, which will continue to serve the body for a lifetime After this time point, no more B1 cells will be produced However, these cells have self reactive activity, which will not only produce antibodies against exogenous substances, but also produce substances against the body itself The researchers don't know why the immune system allows this particular cell to be produced Recently, in a research report published in the international journal Science immunology, scientists from Lund University found a special mechanism to control the growth of mouse B1 cells through research The relevant research results are expected to help understand the causes of specific types of cancer and autoimmune diseases Photo source: Wikipedia B1 cell is a self reactive B cell subtype, which can continuously produce antibodies to respond to the body's own substances However, this kind of cell is beneficial and not harmful, because sometimes weak self-reaction can help the body deal with dead cells, and B1 cell can help self-cleaning, so that inflammation will not be generated in the body In addition, researchers don't know why the immune system allows this kind of special self reactive cells The immune system has a very strict quality control mechanism, which can eliminate other self reactive cells to prevent the occurrence of autoimmune diseases Professor Joan yuan, researcher, said that we found a mechanism of a special protein form, which can allow the production of B1 cells, which will develop in the fetal stage until two weeks after birth; after that, the special protein will disappear and the window of B1 cell development will be closed The protein that makes this process possible is LIN28B If the protein is absent, the development of B1 cells will be damaged, but if it is overexpressed, the B1 cells in the adult mice will mature The researchers pointed out that the adult immune system consists of newly generated cells and cells developed in the early stage of life, which will last for a lifetime They believed that the special role of immune cells depends on their development and time to protect the body in different ways The memory experienced by the long-lived immune cell carriers before, so all environmental contacts at the beginning of life All contribute to the formation of life-long immune system signals The special proteins identified by the researchers can shape the formation of the immune system by allowing the production of specific self reactive cells This long-lived B1 cell pool is essential for reprogramming the lifelong immune system, and it can also help regulate the occurrence of autoimmune diseases and cancer Last researcher Joan Yuan said that although the study was carried out in mice, people have noticed that it has many similarities with human beings, because the researchers found cells similar to B1 cells in cord blood, and the next step is to understand the relationship between the findings of this study and B-cell cancer and autoimmune diseases through more in-depth research Original source: Stijn vanhee, Hugo ÅÅ kerstrand, trine Ahn Kristiansen, et al