One of the many variations of T cells, we now know, is called a T regulatory cell, or Treg. It is a powerful subset of our T cells that has been shown, among its other roles, to help suppress the immune system. In the big picture, this makes sense; it is part of a defense network that is primed to destroy party crashers without being so overzealous that they ruin the party. In that respect, Treg cells are not so unusual. What makes them worthy of note here is that there is a decent chance they wouldn’t exist without the presence of the microbiome in the gut. What Mazmanian discovered, using
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