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A team of scientists has been carefully studying changes over time in one type of immune cell – known as a T helper 17 or Th17 cell. Their analysis led them to an unlikely suspect in the study of autoimmune diseases: salt.

In this video, seven team members from the Ó³»­´«Ã½â€™s Klarman Cell Observatory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, MIT, and Harvard University describe how their approach led them to this unexpected result.

Photo and footage credits: MS brain scan courtesy of Philip Dr Jager; Hands Xray showing advanced rheumatoid arthritis courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/WILLSI; IBD illustration courtesy of Janet Iwasa and Bang Wong; Th17 cell footage, courtesy ofDomingues H, Mues M, Lassmann H, Wekerle H, Krishnamoorthy G [CC-BY-2.5 ()], via Wikimedia Commons; Multicolored Th17 cells images courtesy of Sigrid Knemeyer, Ó³»­´«Ã½ Communications; Silicon nanowire SEMs courtesy of Jellert Gaublomme, Alex Shalek, and Nir Yosef; Mouse image courtesy of Linda Bartlett, National Cancer Institute; Poured out Salt image courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/LeventKonuk; Gemini South Startrails Timelapse footage courtesy of Gemini Observatory/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy