Divide to Conquer: Infection-Specific T Cells Multiply to Fight Infection

Thursday, September 3, 2009 - 15:42 in Biology & Nature

When the body contracts a new virus or bacteria, specific white blood cells --T lymphocytes--are recruited to fight back. Each T cell is only programmed, however, to recognize a specific viral or bacterial strain, so out of every 100,000 T cells, only one might match a novel pathogen. Therefore, once the matches are found, those few cells need to multiply in a hurry to stave off illness. [More]

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