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Science In Action: Red blood cells’ surprising immune function

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Red blood cells’ surprising immune function

21/10/2021 GMT

BBC World Service - Science In Action, Red blood cells’ surprising immune function

New research reveals red blood cells form part of the body’s immune defence.

New research reveals red blood cells form part of the body’s immune defence. Also, large rifts in Arctic ice, tuskless elephants, and remembering a great climate scientist.

We’ve talked a huge amount the past 18 months, for obvious reasons, about the way that white blood cells protect us from infection. But red blood cells – it’s probably among the earliest things I learned in human biology that they’re simple bags for carrying oxygen around the body. But over recent years, immunologist Nilam Mangalmurti, University of Pennsylvania,  has been finding several clues to challenge that dogma – including molecules on the surface of red blood cells known from other parts of the immune system. 

The Last Ice Area, home to the oldest and thickest ice in the Arctic, is expected to act as the last refuge for ice-dependent wildlife as the rest of the Arctic melts. Kent Moore, University of Toronto-Mississauga, tells us that the formation of a 3,000 square kilometre rift in the area means the ice is not as resilient as we once thought.

Also on the programme, an obituary for the renowned Dutch climate scientist and physicist Geert Jan van Oldenborgh (October 22, 1961 – October 12, 2021), and, Dominique Gonçalves, Gorongosa National Park, explains how ivory poaching during the Mozambican civil war led to the rapid evolution of tusklessness in African elephants.

Image: Confocal microscopy of CpG-treated human RBCs stained for Band 3. Credit: Mangalmurti Lab / Nilam Mangalmurti, MD)




Presenter: Roland Pease
Producer: Samara Linton

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