Immune System and the Brain

You may recall reading or hearing that in 2015 researchers discovered for the first time that the brain does have an immune system. Immune vessels have been found in all three protective layers (meninges) that surround and protect brain tissue. Prior to that, it was thought that immune system messengers could reach the brain through the blood stream but that there were no immune vessels transporting lymph fluid in brain tissue. University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers led by Jonathan Kipnis MD, a professor in Department of Neuroscience and

Director of the University’s Center for Brain Immunology and Glia, were ‘dissecting brains’ in the laboratory. Antoine Louveau, a postdoctoral fellow working in the laboratory, saw something he had never seen before and that he did not recognize. More tomorrow.