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Private immune protection at the border of the central nervous system

At the outer border of the brain and spinal cord, immune cells have been observed that originate from the bone marrow of the adjacent skull and vertebrae. They reach this site through special bone channels, without passing through the blood.
By
  1. Britta Engelhardt

    1. Britta Engelhardt is at the Theodor Kocher Institute, University of Bern, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland.

Barriers around the brain and spinal cord of the central nervous system (CNS) protect neuronal cells from the changeable milieu of the bloodstream by controlling movement of molecules and cells between the blood and the CNS. These barriers also ensure that the CNS can be kept under surveillance by certain immune cells, but restrict the access of blood-derived immune cells and molecules to specific compartments at the border of the CNS1. Writing in Science, Cugurra et al.2 and Brioschi et al.3 report that the dura mater, a tissue layer around the outermost barrier of the CNS, sources a private immune protection from nearby bone marrow.

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Nature 596, 38-40 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01962-4

References

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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