The researchers, who are supported by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, say these cells, which are abundant in our bodies, could be harnessed to help heal tissues and treat diseases such as infections of the lung, the bowel or the skin.
The research was published in the journal Cell Reports.
The two Oxford teams were investigating a kind of white blood cell, the ‘Mucosal Associated Invariant T cells’, or ‘MAIT cells’ for short, which were only identified in the last few years.
Read more (NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre)