## David Vetter, the bubble boy

T cells are a class of white blood cells without which a human being usually cannot survive. An exception to this was David Vetter, a boy who lived 12 years without T cells. This was only possible because he lived all this time in a sterile environment, a plastic bubble. For this reason he became known as the bubble boy. The disease which he suffered from is called SCID, severe combined immunodeficiency, and it corresponds to having no T cells. The most common form of this is due to a mutation on the X chromosome and as a result it usually affects males. The effects set in a few months after birth. The mutation leads to a lack of the $\gamma$ chain of the IL-2 receptor. In fact this chain occurs in several cytokine receptors and is therefore called the ‘common chain’. Probably the key to the negative effects caused by its lack in SCID patients is the resulting lack of the receptor for IL-7, which is important for T cell development. SCID patients have a normal number of B cells but very few antibodies due to the lack of support by helper T cells. Thus in the end they lack both the immunity usually provided by T cells and that usually provided by B cells. This is the reason for the description ‘combined immunodeficiency’. I got the information on this theme which follows mainly from two sources. The first is a documentary film ‘Bodyshock – The Boy in the Bubble’ about David Vetter produced by Channel 4 and available on Youtube. (There are also less serious films on this subject, including one featuring John Travolta.) The second is the chapter on X-linked SCID in the book ‘Case Studies in Immunology’ by Raif Geha and Luigi Notarangelo. I find this book a wonderful resource for learning about immunology. It links general theory to the case history of specific patients.