Latest Major histocompatibility complex Stories
A Brazilian study has found that people are subconsciously more likely to choose a partner whose genetic make-up is different to their own, further cementing the adage that opposites really do attract, Reuters reported.Married couples were found to be more likely to have genetic differences in a DNA region governing the immune system than were randomly matched pairs, the researchers said.Maria da Graca Bicalho and her colleagues at the University of Parana in Brazil reported that this was...
A study from a team of researchers led by Dr. Andrew P. Makrigiannis, Director of the Molecular Immunology Research Unit at the IRCM, has identified a new mechanism regulating interferon production. This discovery, co-authored by scientists from the International Medical Center of Japan (Tokyo), the National Cancer Institute at Frederick (Maryland) and the McGill Centre for the Study of Host Resistance, was published on December 22, 2008 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.The...
A recent British study showed that women who take a contraceptive pill may also be changing their taste in men and leading them to those who are genetically less compatible. The study, reported by a team of researchers at the University of Liverpool, suggests that taking the pill can change the type of male scent they are attracted to. Researchers said the hormones in the pill may influence the way that women assess male sexual attractiveness.The pill is thought to disrupt an instinctive...
Researchers unravel complexity of the major histocompatibility complex in tailed amphibiansMajor Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) genes produce proteins that are crucial in fighting pathogen assault. Researchers from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) characterized genetic variation and detected more than one MHC class II locus in a tailed amphibian. Unlike mammals, not much has been known until now about the immune defense of...
San Diego -- A cluster of genes on chromosome six is the only one that plays a significant role in multiple sclerosis (MS), according to the most complete genetic study to date in the disorder, presented at the 130th annual meeting of the American Neurological Association in San Diego. "Our results confirm the strong role of the major histocompatibility complex genes in MS, and provides a definitive statement that no other region of the genome harbors a gene with a similar overall...
A group of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has solved a mystery that has dogged immunologists for many years: how T-cell receptors interact with their coreceptor proteins at the beginning of an immune response. T-cell receptors and coreceptor molecules are both large proteins displayed on the surface of T cells, and they play an essential role during the beginning of an immune response. T cells become activated after their T-cell receptor recognizes antigen -- small pieces of...
The great physical diversity that evolution has forged in human beings is in evidence wherever we look, but the genes exhibiting the greatest diversity at the DNA level happen to function in a wholly invisible process: immunity. Genes encoding the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) proteins are among the most diverse in the human genome, and scientists have proposed a number of hypotheses to explain why. This week, researchers report new findings that support the idea that the striking diversity...
