Airway lining fights infection by physically removing infected cells, experiments show

AI Summary

Experiments suggest airway epithelial cells can help fight infection by physically removing infected cells, rather than serving only as a passive protective barrier. The research is associated with cell biologist Jody Rosenblatt and teams at the Francis Crick Institute and King's College London.

The epithelium, a layer of cells that forms a protective barrier between the body and the outside world, was the first organized tissue to evolve. Epithelial cells lining our airways are mainly seen as a structural barrier, but cell biologist Jody Rosenblatt, who runs a lab at the Crick and King's College London, believes their evolutionary history suggests they play a much more active role in infections.