
Transdifferentiation of human adult peripheral blood T cells into neurons - nabla9
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/05/30/1720273115
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nabla9
[http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2018/06/human-blood-
ce...](http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2018/06/human-blood-cells-
transformed-into-functional-neurons.html)

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nine_k
IIRC T cells are among the very few cells that can be "taught" or
"programmed": they are "programmed" to react to specific antigens in thymus
[1].

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thymus#Function](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thymus#Function)

~~~
AllegedAlec
It's not actually teaching what happens in the Thymus and bone marrow, to be
honest. When a T-cell is generated, certain sections of its DNA are mutated so
that it can respond to foreign proteins.

However, the process of mutation is inherently random. What the 'teaching' in
the thymus and bone marrow do is that if these cells do not respond to foreign
antigens, or if they respond to the body's own antigens, the T-Cell is killed.

EDIT: Damn. Sarnath'ed.

~~~
nonbel
Its the same thing as police training via shooting at the targets that pop
up.[1] If someone keeps shooting the hostages/civilians instead of the bad
guys they will wash out.

[1] [https://shop.actiontarget.com/prodcat/papercardboard-
scenari...](https://shop.actiontarget.com/prodcat/papercardboard-scenario-
hostage.asp)

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DonHopkins
Is this related to transubstantiation of adult blood to wine and flesh to
cracker?

