Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
Science Careers Booklet

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 25 May 2007:
Vol. 316. no. 5828, p. 1101
DOI: 10.1126/science.316.5828.1101c
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Editors' Choice: Highlights of the recent literature

During their passage through the thymus, developing T cells are selected on the basis of their capacity to recognize foreign antigens while remaining tolerant of the body's own constituents. This is achieved in part through interacting (in the thymic medulla) with specialized epithelial cells that offer up small samples of self proteins whose expression is largely restricted to other tissues. This supplemental expression of the self proteins is regulated by the transcription factor Aire and contributes to preventing autoimmunity.

Rossi et al. used organ cultures derived from fetal mouse thymus to ascertain that hematopoietic cells already known to induce peripheral lymphoid tissue, and aptly named lymphoid tissue inducing (LTi) cells, also regulate the development of a subset of medullary epithelial cells and their expression of Aire. This depended on the receptor activator nuclear factor-kappaB ligand (RANKL), and autoimmunity-like symptoms ensued after the transplantation of RANK-deficient thymus into athymic mice. Previous studies have reported that another tumor necrosis factor family member (lymphotoxin-alpha) is expressed in LTi cells and has similar effects, so resolving the contributions of each in regulating immunological tolerance will be of interest. -- SJS

J. Exp. Med. 204, 10.1084/jem.20062497 (2007).




ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)