What signal causes infection-fighting leukocytes or white blood cells to rush into a wound immediately after it occurs? Scientists at Harvard Medical School in Boston (United States) have just found the answer in a molecule: hydrogen peroxide . In experiments with zebrafish, Philip Niethammer and his team showed that, when a wound occurs in one of the tail fins of these animals, in a matter of minutes the hydrogen peroxide concentration gradient between the outer layer of the zebrafish decreases. cells and the inner vasculature. These changes act as a call or alert message , which attracts leukocytes to the wound to "clean it of germs," as Niethammer explains today in the journal Nature .
In the human body, hydrogen peroxide is produced primarily in the lungs, intestines, and thyroid. The researchers suspect that their finding could be applied to treating human diseases that affect these organs, such as asthma , chronic pulmonary obstruction and some inflammatory problems of the intestines.
