Posted on 08/05/2013 6:11:33 PM PDT by neverdem
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center report the identification of a new cellular source for an important disease-fighting protein used in the body's earliest response to infection.
The protein interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) keeps viruses from replicating and stimulates the immune system to produce other disease-fighting agents. Neutrophils, the newly identified cellular source of the protein, are the major component of the pus that forms around injured tissue.
The researchers also report that the neutrophils appear to produce IFN-γ through a new cellular pathway independent of Toll-like receptors (TLRs): the body's early warning system for invasion by pathogens. This finding indicates that mammals might possess a second early-alert system -- the sort of built-in redundancy engineers would envy, said Dr. Felix Yarovinsky, assistant professor of immunology and senior author of the study published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in June.
"We believe our mouse study provides strong evidence that neutrophils, white blood cells created in the bone marrow, produce significant amounts of IFN-γ in response to disease," Dr. Yarovinsky said. "The finding of a new and essential cellular source for IFN-γ challenges a long-held belief in the field and is significant because neutrophils are the most common kind of white blood cell."
Two pathogens were used in this study: the parasite Toxoplasma gondii -- which can cause brain damage in humans and other mammals that have compromised immune systems -- and a type of bacterium that causes gastroenteritis, Salmonella typhimurium.
Innate immunity is the body's first line of defense against pathogens, including those that it has never before encountered. Adaptive immunity is the secondary system that battles pathogens to which the body has previously been exposed and to which it has developed antibodies.
Textbooks list natural killer (NK) cells and T cells as the body's significant sources...
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Whoa!
Will never drink a beer again without thinking that the head might be PUS!! LOL
Too tired to care about VA scandal?
FReepmail me if you want on or off my combined microbiology/immunology ping list.
So the ancients were actually onto something with their concept of "noble pus."
Dubbed Governmentin due to the ability of government agents to give themselves immunity from virtually any law.
of course it is the pus from the porpoise that is truly all-purpose.
All my life I have drained pus from any kind of sore or wound. Does this mean I have been doing it wrong for 60+ years, and I should encourage the pus to stick around?
Doesn't seem reasonable to me. If I get an infected hair, pulling the hair and draining the pus produces an overnight cure. Not doing this leads to an open sore that lasts for many days.
"All my life I have drained pus from any kind of sore or wound. Does this mean I have been doing it wrong for 60+ years, and I should encourage the pus to stick around?"
"Doesn't seem reasonable to me. If I get an infected hair, pulling the hair and draining the pus produces an overnight cure. Not doing this leads to an open sore that lasts for many days."
They are referring to an inflammatory reaction , the components of which, including neutrophils, form a scab. If I had an abscess, and I had to choose between antibiotics or draining it, it gets drained. BTW, I'm a doc.
Exercise kills germs. It’s just so damn hard to get them varmints to exercise.
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