Access

News and Views

Nature 448, 416-418 (26 July 2007) | doi:10.1038/448416a; Published online 25 July 2007

Open Innovation Challenges

naturejobs

Immunology: Narcissistic helpers

Matthew T. Palmer1 & Casey T. Weaver1

Top

T helper-17 cells, which are involved in immune responses, arise from a pool of precursor cells. It emerges that their differentiation is partly mediated by the IL-21 protein, which originates from the helper cells themselves.

Over the past 500 million years, vertebrates have evolved an elegant solution to the lifelong challenge posed by microbes: adaptive immunity. The adaptive immune response is triggered when a foreign, or non-self, molecule (an antigen) is encountered.

  1. Matthew T. Palmer and Casey T. Weaver are in the Department of Pathology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35294-2170, USA.
    Email: cweaver@uab.edu

MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS

These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.

NEWS AND VIEWS

T H -17 differentiation: of mice and men

Nature Immunology News and Views (01 Sep 2007)

Differentiation of human T H -17 cells does require TGF-β!

Nature Immunology News and Views (01 Jun 2008)

See all 5 matches for News And Views