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Yale University researchers have discovered a new way that autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS) can be triggered, they reported Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Scientists have long known the molecule TGF-Beta (transforming growth factor Beta) plays a pivotal role in preventing T cells from launching an attack on the body's own tissues.

A team led by Richard Flavell, professor and chairman of Immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine, investigated whether TGF-Beta might also influence activity of other immune system cells as well.

Flavell, an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and his colleagues engineered mice in which TGF-Beta was blocked at different places in the immune system. They found that when they blocked TGF-Beta in dendritic cells (DC's) the mice developed lesions on myelin sheathing of central nervous system cells, the hallmark of MS.............

For the full report please go to MSRC: MS Research News : New Discoveries : Antibodies, B Cells,T-Cell Activation and Immune Response