Because of the work of several other collaborators, Haughey says, his team knew that some sort of inflammation - promoting molecule was released from brain and targeted to
the liver after brain injury to send immune system cells to the damaged area, but the identity of this go - between had been elusive for years.
Akassoglou and her colleagues thought they had a good candidate in the gene for the p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR), a regulator of cell death in the
brain that also switches on soon
after liver injuries.