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ANTIBODIES may be the “sheepdogs” of our immune systems, gathering viruses,
bacteria and toxins into the spleen and lymph nodes, where the invaders are
destroyed. The “sheepdog” role has been established by Adrian Ochsenbein of the
University Hospital, Bern, and his colleagues in Switzerland, Germany and South
Africa (Science, vol 286, p 2156). They showed that bacteria and
viruses were herded into the lymph organs in normal mice, but remained dispersed
in mice that had been engineered so they cannot make antibodies. “They take the
stuff away from vital organs and enable the body to mount a defence,” says
Ochsenbein.