Selecting killers: the line between life and death
Lindsay B. Nicholson
& Vijay K. Kuchroo
Center for Neurologic Diseases, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston MA 02115 USA. kuchroo@cnd.bwh.harvard.edu
How do T cells that are specific for pancreatic islet cell antigens cause diabetes? A recent paper in Nature provides evidence from NOD mice that the killer T cells responsible increase their avidity as the disease progresses—removing the high avidity clones prevents disease.
