AI experimentation - snipey bad-mood criticisms

[Guest guest]

This stuff is SO freakin abstruse.

Not sure anyone wants a look at this one... basic story is they

created AI disease in mice by injecting T-cell lines. (Clever

controls they used established very clearly that the disease was AI.)

http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/articlerender.fcgi?

tool=pubmed & pubmedid=10841661

Sounds impressive, but check the fine print on the mice:

" We have previously revealed that RAG-2–/– mice lacking T cells, B

cells, and NKT cells become highly prone to passive experimental

autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) after eliminating NK cells in

vivo (18). "

So these are not your daddys lab mice. Specifically, if they have no

lymphocytes they must have no T-regulatory cells? Whats up with

that? How are you going to expect them to have any immunological

normality? From my very very crude knowledge of T-reg cells I dont

think we know enough to exclude this being a big factor. Its kind of

like studying injured animals to find out what kinds of stimuli

provoke emotional irritation.

" We have previously revealed that gut-shot chimps become highly

prone to distress responses to loud noises after they have been

treated with tear gas. "

Further, there is the problem of " transfer dynamics " as I'll call

it. Take this paper: " 5 × 10^6 T-line cells [ie 5 million cells of a

single T-cell clone] were intravenously transferred. " We know that

autoAbs and autoreactive T-cells occur at some level in various

natural states of health and disease, and that there are mechanisms

that keep autoreactivity to harmless levels at least in healthy

individuals. How do we know that the sudden introduction of auto-T-

cells, or autoAb for that matter, does not overcome self-tolerance

regulatory networks in ways having nothing to do with any natural

disease? This seems to be a potential problem with any

adoptive/passive transfer experiment.