Powerful Imaging Technology Helps to Uncover Important Interaction Involved in Tolerance

The body's immune system is supposed to "tolerate" itself  and distinguish "self" from "non-self."  Autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes result from the breakdown of this system, causing immune cells to attack and destroy insulin-producing beta cells or "self."  In the November issue of Nature Immunology, Brian Fife, PhD and collaborators including senior author Jeffrey Bluestone, PhD  share how they have uncovered a basic process that helps control immune cell activation and tolerance.  By utilizing two-photon laser-scanner microscopy to look at individual immune cells in a mouse model of type 1 diabetes, they discovered that when a molecule found on the immune cell called Programmed death 1 (PD-1) binds to another molecule found on another cell, PD-L1, the cells are prevented from forming stable interactions and have increased movement.  These fast-moving cells interact less with the cells in the pancreas, thereby preventing type 1 diabetes.  The team hopes that this research will help in the development of a new generation of tolerogenic drugs that will "turn off" selected parts of the immune system, leaving the disease-fighting capabilities intact.   A UCSF postdoctoral fellow for six years, Dr. Fife is now a faculty member with the University of Minnesota's Center for Immunology.  [ Nature Immunology ]