Immune System Surveillance and Communication

With increasing knowledge and improving technology, scientists are continually gaining big information about little things way down at the cellular level and beyond. Isn't it human nature to want to know how things work? In this case, how certain white blood cells are working in the immune system.

Image credit: Clker clipart

An unintentional discovery led to a hypothesis that was confirmed regarding how this cell works in both the brain and gastrointestinal tract. It's doing surveillance duty, and the two regions are communicating so they can send our internal cavalry charging to the rescue. This is yet another example of the specified complexity that our Creator used to benefit his creation.

After investing so much time and effort to understand how body parts interact, scientists keep turning up new and unforeseen connections—often when they ask the right questions. New and strange developments inspired a team to ask wacky questions about a unique white blood cell called Ly6C^hi. And they found some profound answers.

Publishing in Cell Reports, German and U.S. scientists asked why the same cells showed up both in mouse brain and gut. They also asked why mouse brains stopped certain activities after antibiotics erased the helpful bacteria from mouse gut contents. The team knew Ly6C^hi cells were present in a region of the brain’s hippocampus called the dentate gyrus (DG) that builds new cells as mice learn new things. This also happens in other mammals including man. What’s going on with these cells?

To read the rest, click on "Special Cells Help Brain and Gut Communicate".

A recent discovery regarding special cells in the immune system, how they communicate in the brain and gastrointestinal tract, help illustrate the specified complexity of our Creator's work.