Thymus News and Research

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Mice stressed in simulated weightlessness show organ atrophy

A ground-based, experimental model used to simulate astronaut weightlessness in space has provided Rutgers scientists an opportunity to study the effects of stress on immune organs.

4 Sep 2007

Nurse cells play important role in deciding which T cells live and which die

"Nurse cells" play an important role in deciding which developing infection-fighting cells, called T cells, live and which die, according to research funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and reported in the June issue of the journal Experimental Biology and Medicine.

30 May 2007

New regulatory mechanism for critical protein signaling domain

The study is being published in Science Express, an advanced online edition of the journal Science, on April 5. It will appear in the print version of Science later this spring.

7 Apr 2007

Scientists discover how T-cell leukemia viruses evade defense mechanisms

National Cancer Institute (NCI) scientists have discovered how human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1), which infects about 20 million people worldwide, evades being held in check by one of the body's natural defense mechanisms.

6 Feb 2007

Viral Genetics identifies two key peptides for potential HIV/AIDS drug

Viral Genetics has identified two key peptides involved in its thymus nuclear protein or "TNP" technology currently under development for the treatment of HIV/AIDS.

9 Jan 2007

Novel way of tackling diseases related to the immune system

A new study has suggested a novel way of combating diseases related to the immune system, including cancer and autoimmune diseases such as type I diabetes and arthritis. The study, funded by the Wellcome Trust, appears online in the journal Nature.

14 Nov 2006

Study reveals white blood cells can both hurt and help transplanted kidneys

In an example of biological irony, the same white blood cell chemistry known to damage kidneys used for transplants may also help prevent such damage, according to a federally funded study in genetically engineered mice at Johns Hopkins.

21 Sep 2006

Turning the immune system against cancer

Medicine can now prevent a host of diseases with a mere shot of vaccine. Polio and smallpox are almost non-existent, and mumps and chicken pox are rarely seen nowadays.

4 Aug 2006

Regulatory T cells learn what to protect while in the thymus and that everything the cells learn may not be good

Regulatory T cells, which function like immune system police, learn early in life what to protect, and that may include viruses, bacteria and tumors, researchers have shown.

3 Aug 2006

Researchers develop T-cells from human embryonic stem cells

Human embryonic stem cells can be genetically manipulated and coaxed to develop into mature T-cells, raising hopes for a gene therapy to combat AIDS.

3 Jul 2006

Finding opens new pathways for treating or preventing autoimmune diseases

A rare genetic defect that can trigger a host of diseases from type 1 diabetes to alopecia has helped explain the imbalance of immune regulator and killer cells in autoimmune disease.

31 May 2006

Novel therapy for chronic graft-versus-host disease

A study by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers offers the strongest evidence yet of the effectiveness of a novel therapy for chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), a potentially life-threatening complication of donor bone marrow and stem cell transplants.

28 Mar 2006

Novel therapy for chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) using Rituximab

Dana-Farber researchers found that rituximab reduced the severity of chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in 70 percent of the study participants.

27 Mar 2006

Interleukin-15 encourages CD8+ T cells to proliferate and reduces their tolerance to tumor antigens

Certain types of white blood cells assist the body in destroying cancerous tumors. Among these are CD8+ T cells. The T is for thymus, the gland near the base of the throat that both raises up and weeds out blood cells involved in immune responses.

20 Feb 2006

Infant transplant patients resist infections that kill adult AIDS patients - possible new treatments for debilitating diseases

Investigators have discovered that some type of protective system goes into action in some cases when a baby's immune system is deficient.

7 Feb 2006

Nanotechnology and biochemistry provide new way to study T cell signaling

Researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley, combining nanotechnology with biochemistry, have created unique synthetic membranes that, for the first time ever, enable them to directly control signaling activity in living T cells from the immune system. Already their experiments have yielded surprising results.

21 Nov 2005

New discoveries help explore the function of regulatory T cells in autoimmune disease and in cancer

More than 150 years after the discovery of Hassall's corpuscles in 1849, the function of these round blobs of cells in the human thymus gland has now been explained. The answer, in turn, ends an intense hunt for the origin of regulatory T cells that has been under way for years.

11 Oct 2005

Study shows that high-fat diets correlate to a chronic inflammatory state in the liver,

Mice that were fed diets high in fat and sugar developed immune system abnormalities in their livers, including reduced numbers of natural killer T (NKT) cells. These diet-related changes may contribute to obesity-related liver disease, according to a new study.

3 Oct 2005

Researchers discover way to dramatically boost the output of immune system cells from the thymus

Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered a way to dramatically boost the output of immune system cells from the thymus, which may lead to improved cancer vaccines, as well as to ways to otherwise strengthen immune responses.

26 Sep 2005

Australian scientists rejuvenate the immune systems of mice and humans using a common hormone

The scientists, led by Associate Professor Richard Boyd and Dr Jayne Sutherland from the Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories, have revitalised the thymus which produces the T cells required to fight infection but which shuts down from early adulthood.

11 Aug 2005