Overturning Traditional Beliefs Cambridge Scientists Have Discovered New Rules of the Immune System [Video]

Cambridge researchers have discovered that regulatory T cells traverse the body to repair tissue, opening avenues for targeted treatments in various diseases.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have found that regulatory T cells, a kind of white blood cell, form a single, large group that continuously circulates throughout the body to seek out and repair damaged tissues.

This overturns the traditional thinking that regulatory T cells exist as multiple specialist populations that are restricted to specific parts of the body. The finding has implications for the treatment of many different diseases – because almost all diseases and injuries trigger the body’s immune system.

Current anti-inflammatory drugs treat the whole body, rather than just the part needing treatment. The researchers say their findings mean it could be possible to shut down the body’s immune response and repair damage in any specific part of the body, without affecting the rest of it. This means that higher, more …