An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System: A Tale in Four Lives

by Matt Richtel

Survival depends on knowing what is self and what is alien. The immune system must cope with three major challenges: the variability of bad actors, the central circulatory system that sends rivers of blood throughout our body in seconds, and the need to heal.

The thymus makes T cells. The bone marrow is the origin of B Cells. They flow in the tunnels and vessels that make up the lymphatic system and congregate in lymph nodes and lymphatic tissue. These are like command centers, surveillance hubs where the firefighters are awaiting a call. The T cells, when alerted by dendritic cells, behave as soldiers and generals, spitting out cytokines; the B cells use antibodies to connect to antigens as if they are keys in search of a lock. Macrophages, neutrophils, and natural killer cells roam the body, tasting and exploring, killing. These networks get connected by signals, chemical transmissions, or processes; are spurred on by interferon and interleukin; and can induce powerful side effects, like fever.

One woman got up in front of the packed lecture hall, with perhaps a thousand people in attendance, and offered head-twisting epidemiology. She put up a graph with two axes. On the y-axis was the severity of the disease, and on the x-axis was “the number of fisting [anal fist-fucking] events per week.” The intimation was, there was something involving the ripping of tissue.

Sleep problems predict death. People who experience prolonged sleep disturbance are more likely to die, and to die earlier, than people who don’t. “The effect sizes are comparable to other known risk factors, like being sedentary, being overweight, having depression,” said Dr. Irwin.

In the 1990s, Werner started to put the pieces together. What she and others discovered begins to explain why things like smoking or coal mining or sunbathing are so carcinogenic. Each activity injures the tissue and damages the DNA. When the tissue is damaged, the immune system kicks in and cleanses the site and helps stimulate new tissue growth. The trouble is that when the DNA is damaged, the new cells that grow can be malignant cells, some that are made up of self but that are different enough to behave like a cancer. These cells aren’t playing by the normal rules of the body and staying within their boundaries. Add all this together and you can wind up with cancerous cells that are protected and even nurtured by the immune system.