Dendritic Cells Ensure Immune Tolerance
Monday, March 16, 2009 - 08:30
in Health & Medicine
One of the most important tasks of the immune system is to identify what is foreign and what is self. If this distinction fails, then the body's own structures will be attacked, the result of which could be an autoimmune disease such as diabetes mellitus type 1 or multiple sclerosis. The only way to protect against these afflictions is to destroy all immune factors that turn against the body’s own tissue – in other words: immune tolerance. Scientists have now investigated exactly what role dendritic cells play in this process.