How to hide surgical implants from the immune system

an essential role in healing. These curious beasts (pictured above), are cell fragments rather than complete cells—though they are still surrounded by cell membranes. Their main job, in collaboration with a protein called fibrin, is to stem the flow of blood from wounds by causing clots. They also encourage the regeneration of damaged tissue. This sort of activity at wound sites might normally draw the attention of the immune system, but that does not happen because platelets carry special proteins in their membranes which render them invisible to immune surveillance. Now, Wang Yunbing at Sichuan University in China writes in that he has developed a way to apply these membranes to medical equipment of the sort destined for installation inside the human body. That may stop the immune system attacking such grafts as foreign objects.