Lipids react and change to bacterial stimulus, triggers cell's immune response
but they also report how these lipids react and change over time to a bacterial stimulus triggering the cell's immune response.
In papers published online in Immunity, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis reveal that the cells, known as CD8 alpha+ dendritic cells, can help the body beat back infection by a common parasite, but the same cells can be hijacked by a bacterium to decimate the body's defenses.