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May 15, 2004

I SAW TOM'S POST RE MEDLINE; MY PREVIOUS VISITS THERE HADN'T BEEN VERY

HELPFUL, BUT CHECK THIS ARTICLE OUT (FROM MEDLINE); DOESN'T IT SUPPORT

THE THEORY OF LDN? SEEMS LIKE THE MS SOCIETY DIDN'T EVEN DO ANY CURSORY

RESEARCH BEFORE PUBLISHING THEIR ARTICLE!

Study: Immune Disease Caused by Lack of Stimulation

Scripps News Service

By By LEE BOWMAN

Thursday, April 15, 2004

In one of the more powerful demonstrations yet that immune cells need to

be stimulated to keep from turning against the body's own tissues,

researchers report they were able to protect mice predisposed to become

diabetic by exposing them to germ fragments.

In a report published Thursday in the journal Cell, scientists at The

Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., said they were able to

boost the supply of critical T cells and curtail development of

insulin-dependent diabetes in mice genetically cued to develop the

autoimmune disease.

The team, led by immunologist Nora Sarvetnick, reported a surge in the

T-cell count when the mice were challenged with a mixture of bacterial

cell-wall components.

" Autoimmunity has been considered a condition of too much stimulation, "

Sarvetnick said. " What we are seeing is that it is a condition of too

little stimulation. "

Sarvetnick and her colleagues argue that humans and other animals need a

certain level of immune-system stimulation to keep the defensive cells

functioning properly.

Otherwise, the under-challenged immune system produces too few T cells.

The body then tries to correct this by expanding this supply on its own,

creating cells more likely to turn against the body itself, particularly

if growth signals are disrupted or the T cells are depleted by certain

viral infections.

Type 1 diabetes develops when T cells turn against critical cells in the

pancreas, the body's source of insulin. Sarvetnick and others believe

this is often triggered by a common viral infection of the pancreas.

Without insulin, the glucose in the bloodstream increases; without

insulin treatment, this can lead to nerve and kidney damage, reduced

eyesight and increased risk of blood-vessel degeneration and heart

disease.

For their study, the Scripps researchers studied the immune system of a

type of mouse, called NOD, that has a genetic defect causing it to grow

more T cells, but doesn't signal them to survive as they normally should.

Ordinarily, proliferating T cells get both sets of signals; in NOD mice,

the cells grow rapidly but quickly die. This rapid turnover causes a

selective pressure that favors the growth of T cells that best recognize

the tissue near them. That leaves them more prone to attack the body's

own tissues.

But when Sarvetnick and her colleagues challenged the immune systems of

the mice with bacterial fragments, the supply of normal T cells increased

and the animals didn't develop diabetes.

To demonstrate that this effect was directly related to an increase in T

cells, the scientists also infused some of the mice with normal T cells,

and those animals also did not develop diabetes.

Sarvetnick and her team said their theory would explain why childhood

bacterial infections decrease the risk for developing autoimmune diseases

like Type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and even asthma, and

why incidence of these diseases has been on the rise in

less-germ-tolerant, developed countries during the past 50 years compared

to less-developed nations.

" The cleaner everyone is, the less stimulation their immune system gets, "

Sarvetnick said. " Their immune system tends to be incomplete. "

On the Net: www.cell.com

Related News:

More news on Autoimmune Diseases

May 15, 2004

That is a handy site but those of us with progressive ms.are still left out in the dark. Any trial or testing is being done on relapsing remmitting ms. as those patients are actually having there disease stop all outward signs for a time, so those of us with chronic progressive have to get our comfort from the knowledge that ldn. is actually stopping our progression right?

I think we need a ldn newsletter.

Reg.

-------Original Message-------

From: low dose naltrexone

Date: 05/15/04 06:08:35

MSherbdoc ; mscured ; low dose naltrexone

Subject: [low dose naltrexone] http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ A Handy site.

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Start here with over 650 topics on conditions, diseases and wellness

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"Key Hole" Surgery Doesn't Raise Colon Cancer Recurrence Risk

Dads Deliver More Than Just DNA

Study Allows Researchers to Visualize Formation of a Memory

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May is Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month. Learn more:

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