T+cells

toc = = = __Definition__: =

The T cell is produced in the bone marrow and moves to the thymus to maturate. The T cell defends against essentially internal threats, such as transplanted tissue, cancer cells, and viruses that live within the body's cells. It is the T cell that declines most in number and efficiency with age. T cells partially lose the ability to "recognize" a foreign cell, so that they body may fail to fight off some disease cells (cancer cells, for example). HGD Chapter 13, p. 339. pp. 339-340

= __Examples__: =

The picture above depicts T cell maturation in the thymus. Basically, the T cell can either mature into a helper T cell, which implied by its name, assists the other cells in destroying pathogens. Without helper T cells, the body's immune system is basically non-existent. Or the T cell can mature into a killer T cell (otherwise known as cytotoxic T cells). These cell's sole purpose is to destroy virus infected cells, cancer cells, and other internal pathogens.
 * note: Most types of cancers attack the helper T cells initially, which renders the body defenseless to other illnesses. Also there are more types of T cells such as the regulatory T cells which dampens the immune response to prevent the body from over exerting itself, like a running an extremely high fever.

= __Analogies__: =

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= __Mnemonics__: =

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=__In the News__:=

[|Inovio's hepatitis B vaccine killer T cells show potential to clear HBV in liver] This article is about synthetic hepatitis B (HBV) therapeutic vaccine that has generated strong T cell responses that eliminated targeted liver cells in mice. So this could clear HBV in the liver. [|Mouse model exposes a new type of T cell to target melanoma] After testing mice, there has been a mouse model that has exposed a new type of T Cell to target melanoma.

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