[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/6209\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EWatch how microscopic tentacles inside your body fight disease\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHepatitis B, a debilitating liver infection, affects around 300 million people around the world and kills 780 000 people each year. There is no specific treatment for acute hepatitis B, which is why it\u0027s so important to investigate.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers were able to make a real-time video recording of the process after developing new imaging techniques, including extremely sensitive microscopes.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt revealed that the white blood cells, known as lymphocytes, seek and destroy diseased liver cells using microscopic protuberances to probe through natural holes in the walls of capillaries.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe tiny holes \u2013 about a 10 000\u003Csup\u003Eth\u003C\/sup\u003E of a millimetre across \u2013 make the liver capillaries different to most others in the body.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen the white blood cell probing through the hole \u2013 or \u2018fenestra\u2019 \u2013 detects the antigen it is programmed to find, such as for hepatitis B, it goes on the attack, killing the infected cell.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProfessor Luca Guidotti and Dr Matteo Iannacone, the EU\u0027s European Research Council grant recipients who co-led the research at the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, Italy, said it was a big surprise to see the lymphocyte doing these tasks from inside the capillary.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018A surprising finding is that the lymphocyte doesn\u2019t need to get out of the capillary to do all this,\u2019 said Prof. Guidotti. \u2018It just has to use its little protrusions.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ciframe src=\u0022https:\/\/europa.eu\/webtools\/crs\/iframe\/?oriurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FVfYzzEC_ky4\u0022 width=\u0022585\u0022 height=\u0022325\u0022 frameborder=\u00220\u0022\u003E\u003C\/iframe\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u003Cspan lang=\u0022EN-GB\u0022\u003ENew imaging techniques, including multi-photon microscopes, are revealing how white blood cells protrude through holes in capillary walls. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003Cem\u003EV\u003C\/em\u003E\u003Cem style=\u0022font-size: 13.0080003738403px; line-height: 1.538em;\u0022\u003Eideo: Matteo Iannacone\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong style=\u0022font-size: 13.0080003738403px; line-height: 1.538em;\u0022\u003EHepatitis B\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Iannacone said the researchers were also able to observe how the process is hampered by liver damage caused by chronic hepatitis B.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis damage, liver fibrosis, affects the capillary holes, which can become smaller or even blocked, interfering with the efforts of the white blood cells to detect and kill problem cells. That could help to explain why long-term hepatitis B can play a leading role in liver cancer.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018It could be that this process of liver fibrosis interferes with antigen recognition, and impairs the immune surveillance that white blood cells perform with respect to infected cells or tumour cells,\u2019 Dr Iannacone said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA lot of earlier work on how white blood cells identify and attack targets was done \u003Cem\u003Ein vitro\u003C\/em\u003E, where groups of cells can be observed. But the lack of a living capillary wall made it impossible to reproduce the microcirculation shown to be so important in the process.\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018Lots of the findings we made were totally unexpected, achieved only because of the power of the technology.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EProfessor Luca Guidotti, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EObserving the living vessel wall in real time showed for the first time the role in these immune mechanisms of blood platelets, which are usually involved in blood clotting.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPlatelets streaming through the liver can briefly form tiny clumps on the wall of a capillary, and a passing lymphocyte in the bloodstream will stick to the clump, attach itself to the vessel wall and then \u2018crawl\u2019 very slowly back and forth, using its tentacles to probe for infected cells through the holes. The platelets then detach themselves and perhaps repeat the process downstream.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Lots of the findings we made were totally unexpected, achieved only because of the power of the technology,\u2019 Prof. Guidotti said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E3D imaging\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe 3D imaging methods developed by the researchers included multi-photon microscopes that are so sensitive that they have to be two floors below ground on a three-tonne table, which is suspended to avoid vibration.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Without this special setting, a truck driving even a kilometre away would cause too much vibration for the recording of this imaging,\u2019 Prof. Guidotti said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFurther technology to help scientists look deeper into living processes is being supported by EU-funding, including that being developed by the CSRR project, coordinated by the Institute of Photonic Sciences, near Barcelona, Spain.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe CSRR researchers, funded by the EU\u0027s Marie Sk\u0142odowska-Curie actions,\u0026nbsp;have been developing systems to match live-cell images with super-resolution nanoscopy images. The process, developed using real-time imaging of herpes virus infections, allows researchers to extract biologically significant information that they would not be able to get through more conventional imaging methods.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnd EU support has also contributed to understanding the processes by which stem cells specialise in living organisms, becoming different types of cells such as skin, heart, blood or bone. The DIFFEBIMG project, coordinated by the University of Tel Aviv, Israel, has developed live imaging to observe these processes, which could have implications for transplant medicine.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-etbsvhgtunfzm3-tqrbcyszn2esuqhyqf1remz-znws\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-etbsvHgTunfZM3_tQrBcySZn2esuQHYQF1REmz_Znws\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]