| ■ Primate Immune System Differences Identified | 2010.12.17 |
| FRIDAY, Dec. 17 (HealthDay News) -- Differences in immune signaling pathways among various species may explain why humans are more susceptible than other primates to certain infectious diseases, researchers say. For example, when it comes to the progression of HIV to AIDS or severe complications from hepatitis B, it has been found that humans are more sensitive than chimpanzees to the serious effects of these viral infections, noted Luis B. Barreiro of the University of Chicago and colleagues. In the new study, published in the Dec. 16 online edition of the journal PLoS Genetics, Barreiro's team conducted the first genome-wide comparison of genes regulated by the innate immune system in humans, chimpanzees and rhesus macaques. In order to identify functional differences in their immune pathways, the researchers stimulated immune cells from each of the three primate species. |