In the thymus, so-called T cells mature into full-fledged immune system sentinels. Seeking better ways to grow these white blood cells in the laboratory, David T. Scadden of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and his colleagues have built an artificial thymus by seeding a three-dimensional carbon matrix with tissue from the immune organ.
When precursor T cells are added to this matrix, mature cells emerge within 2 weeks, the investigators report in the July Nature Biotechnology.
Log in
Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.