Letters to the Editor

19068

By Science News

- More than 2 years ago

If an animal can boost its immune system in response to shortening days, why would it not keep its immune system operating at that higher level all the time? Is there some physiological cost to maintaining a higher level of immune response?

Michael Lehner
Greenfield, N.H.

According to Staci D. Bilbo of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, it’s too “energetically expensive” for hamsters to maintain a high level of immune function.