RNA and DNA help cells switch class
By John Travis
As it fights off an infection, the human body tailors its immune response. For example, in a process known as class switch recombination, immune cells called B cells rearrange their DNA.
In so doing, they alter the antibodies they’re making, so the Y-shaped molecules speed to specific tissues of the body rather than simply circulate in the blood.
“Without class switch recombination, we wouldn’t be able to send antibodies across the gastrointestinal tract or into the lungs,” notes Michael R. Lieber of the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles.