In article <36B8C850.3B3B at mail.tju.edu>,
mark <mark.haynes at mail.tju.edu> wrote:
>>one falsifiable prediction is that "normal" apoptosis should not induce
>a specific immune response. problem is in the design obviously, 'casue many
The problem is that "normal" apoptosis is fuzzy. Is there "abnormal"
apoptosis? It's clear that apoptosis cells can induce an immune response;
see, for example, J Immunol 1998 Nov 1;161(9):4467-71 (our journal club
selection for today, so I have it in mind), and several other papers. But
the authors of this paper, like those of some of the other papers, have
then concluded that this is consistent with the danger hypothesis because
the apoptosis needed to be *abnormal* in quantity (i.e. there had to be an
excess of apoptosis cells over DC to get the response).
Now this isn't illogical, and it's not an unreasonable idea; but you see
my point, I think. There was, in fact, a prediction there; it was, in
fact, falsified, because apoptotic cells did induce the immune response;
but that did not falsify the theory, because a post-hoc explanation was
provided. Again, I don't object to the explanation itself, but I'm not
enthusiastic about the sense that the theory itself is not falsifiable.
>ask this. Do you think its possible that the immune system evolved by a
>coalesence of 2 or maor pathways of recognition and thereby 2 or more
>paradigm are needed to explain them in that grand reductionist bend that we
>are riding on?
I don't think we need a paradigm at all, personally. The immune system
wasn't a grand design, it's an ad hoc collection of things that worked
throughout ones' ancestors' lives. We happen to lump this mishmash of
things into something we call an "immune system", but putting a name to
something doesn't mean it's an entity, or even two or three entities.
Where does your fist go when you open your hand? And does a dog have
Buddha nature?
I'd better leave it at that, I'm waxing philosophical.
Ian
--
Ian York (iayork at panix.com) <http://www.panix.com/~iayork/>
"-but as he was a York, I am rather inclined to suppose him a
very respectable Man." -Jane Austen, The History of England
