For their investigations, the researchers used human tonsils (palatine tonsils), a collection of lymphatic follicles surrounded by connective tissue, which are often removed after inflammatory processes.

In the adaptive immune system there is close cooperation between T cells and B cells in so-called germinal centers of the lymph nodes. The T cells help to optimize the antibodies formed by the B cells making the reaction to the antigen highly specific.

Together with colleagues from Australia, Great Britain and Italy, Prof. Michael Meyer-Hermann, Head of the Department of Systems Immunology at Helmholtz Center for Infection Research (HZI) and from Braunschweig Center for Systems Biology (BRICS), investigated the role of the neurotransmitter dopamine in this process. They were able to show that dopamine is released by the T cells, which promote the run of the signal cascade within 30 minutes, which is necessary for the selection of the optimized B cells. In mice, however, which do not have this dopamine route, this process lasts longer than four hours, the scientists write.

On the basis of their mathematical simulation model, the scientists from the HZI/BRICS found that dopamine has no influence on the optimization process of the B cells (affinity maturation) itsself. However, it promotes the amount of the antibody production.

Original Publication:
I. Papa, M. Ponzoni, D. Saliba, P.F. Canete, P. Gonzalez-Figueroa, S. Bustamante, M. Grimbaldeston, R.A. Sweet, H. Vohra, M. Meyer-Hermann, M.L. Dustin, C. Doglioni, C.G. Vinuesa (2017): TFH-derived dopamine accelerates productive T: B synapses in human germinal centers. Nature. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v547/n7663/full/nature23013.html

Source and further information:
http://www.bionity.com/de/news/164112/glueckshormon-dopamin-steuert-immunabwehr.html?WT.mc_id=ca0264
https://www.helmholtz-hzi.de/de/forschung/forschungsschwerpunkte/immunsystem_und_immunabwehr/system_immunologie/m_meyer_hermann/