Vitamin A signals offer clues to treating au...(by zymosan in cell culture. They were su...),Health

"Others have seen that these genes are turned on constitutively in the gut, but seeing how they can be induced elsewhere is new," Pulendran says.

Manicassamy and colleagues found that dendritic cells use retinoic acid along with other chemical messengers to steer white blood cells into a regulatory mode, rather than an attack mode. For dendritic cells to do so, they need TLR2, since zymosan also activates another receptor called dectin-1, which sends out stimulatory signals.

The effects of zymosan and TLR2 can deter white blood cells from attacking nerve tissue in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis, the authors found.

In the model, mice are immunized against myelin, which forms a protective sheath around nerves. Injecting the mice with zymosan at the same time as immunization reduced the damage to their nerves.

'/>"/>