How glands expand to fight off disease

The same specialised immune cells that patrol the body looking for signs of infection also trigger the expansion of glands called lymph nodes, which are the control centres of our immune system, according to new research from UCL and Cancer Research UK. Lymph nodes are small organs located across the whole body which contain immune cells that fight bacteria, viruses and cancer cells. During illness, the lymph nodes expand to allow immune cells to gather ahead of attack, but how this happened was not understood. The scientists say the discovery is an important step in understanding how the immune system could be used to tackle cancer. The study in mice published in Nature today found that when a particular immune cell called a dendritic cell recognises a threat, it produces a molecule called CLEC-2. This tells the cells deep inside the lymph nodes to stretch out and expand to form a cellular mesh that holds large numbers of disease fighting cells. These dendritic cells are already known to patrol the body searching for threats, calling for reinforcements to tackle them.