Sponge used to study organ rejection
August 20, 2005A University of Barcelona researcher found the red beard sea sponge, which grows near Florida, could help determine why organ are rejected in humans.
The red beard sponge has a cell-to-cell recognition system that, on a basic level, is similar to that of humans but much simpler. It's also a good organism for laboratory research, since its cells and cell adhesion molecules can be isolated with simple, fast and non-disruptive methods and studied, according to Fernandez-Busquets.
In experiments this summer at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., Fernandez-Busquets studied the cells and molecules believed to be involved in the process of tissue rejection. By grafting together pieces of different individual sponges that will reject each other -- a process that approximates what sometimes happens in human transplants -- the scientists have observed that cells known as gray cells migrate to and amass at the graft site, a clear suggestion that they are involved in non-self tissue recognition and rejection.
Researchers believe gray cells may be a primitive form of the human immune system's human killer cells.
Copyright 2005 by United Press International
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