April 13, 2008

I just watched the video of the John Hockenberry/Hugh Herr talk about "human augmentation" and "Human 2.0" -- electronic prosthetics and new-age wheelchairs, among other topics -- which you can get to from this site. It starts out a bit slow, but contains really interesting tidbits about, for instance, nerve regeneration...

In this study, mice lacking a component of the molecule to which IFN-beta binds to mediate its effects were found to develop more severe EAE (a model of MS) than mice expressing this protein. This was associated with increased numbers of immune cells known as Th17 cells in the central nervous system of the mice.

Further experiments showed that disease could be alleviated in these mice by administration of a soluble molecule known as IL-27, leading the authors to suggest that in individuals with MS, the beneficial effects of IFN-beta are likely to be mediated, at least in part, through its ability to induce the secretion of IL-27.