Three papers on the role of the TGF-beta pathway in different cancers have recently been published.

It was already known that this pathway is involved in processes such as cell growth, cell differentiation, apoptosis, cellular homeostasis and other cellular functions. The pathway as such works in quite a simple way:

Efficient immune response against an infectious agent is organised according to a “two-legged” pattern. In order to give the immune system enough time to fine-tune its weapons against the invader (whilst maintaining the threat at bay), the first line of defence mobilises ancestral effectors during the first hours of the invasion. These “innate” defences aim at stimulating a dormant, but far more specialised and potent, second line of defence: the adaptive immune system.

That’s quite an elaborate chain of reactions… so what role do glycolipids play in immune response?