Activating natural killer T (NKT) cells with a CD1d ligand protects susceptible mice from tuberculosis, according to a recent report by Boston-based researchers. Previously, Dr. Samuel M. Behar and colleagues, from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, had shown that the absence of CD1d-restricted NKT cells does not affect survival in mice infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
In the current study, “we considered the possibility that activated NKT cell may enhance immunity to tuberculosis, even though their absence does not impair resistance to tuberculosis,” they explain.
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