Volume 2 Issue 12, December 2001

Sweat glands are thought of primarily as organs for temperature regulation. Schittek et al. on page 1133 found another valuable function in human sweat: a novel antimicrobial peptide, which they called dermicidin (red). Myoepithelial cells (blue) surround the secretory coil of the eccrine sweat glands (nuclei are green). Dermcidin had antimicro-bial activity at pH and salt concentrations of sweat, making it a candidate for the skin's innate defenses.

Editorial

Accepting stem cells

Editorial 01 Dec 2001

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Correspondence

CD43 in T cell–DC conjugate formation?

Hermann J. Ziltener
Douglas A. Carlow
Correspondence 01 Dec 2001
Response to 'CD43 in T cell–DC conjugate formation?'

Alain Trautmann
Correspondence 01 Dec 2001
Hemokinin 1 is a full agonist at the substance P receptor

Olivier Morteau
Bao Lu
Norma P. Gerard
Correspondence 01 Dec 2001

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Commentary

Innate immunity in the etiopathology of autoimmunity

A recent workshop was convened under the auspices of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to examine the relationship of the innate immune system to autoimmune disorders.

Michael Carroll
Commentary 01 Dec 2001

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News & Views

CD8⁺ T cell development: CD4 to the rescue

How immature CD4⁺CD8⁺ thymocytes become committed to either the CD4 (helper) or CD8 (cytotoxic) lineage is controversial. Genetic ablation of a silencer element in the gene encoding CD4 provides new evidence that CD8 lineage commitment occurs via a stochastic, rather than instructive, mechanism.

H. Robson MacDonald
Werner Held
News & Views 01 Dec 2001
From B to A the mucosal way

Generation of intestinal secretory IgA depends on antigen induction of B cells in organized GALT. A recent paper in Nature reports that in mice the lamina propria provides signals that direct mucosal B cells to undergo C_α class switching and as a basis for SIgA production.

Per Brandtzaeg
Espen S. Baekkevold
H. Craig Morton
News & Views 01 Dec 2001
Asthma genetics: not for the TIMid?

A new family of conserved genes encodes mucin-like glycoproteins. These genes contribute to asthma susceptibility by influencing T_H differentiation and cytokine production.

Marsha Wills-Karp
News & Views 01 Dec 2001
Quiescent T cells: actively maintaining inactivity

New evidence suggests that mediators of T cell quiescence and immune suppression converge on a common transcriptional program. Tob, a member of a family of anti-proliferation regulators, actively maintains T cell quiescence by interacting with components of the TGF-β signal transduction pathway.

Xianxin Hua
Craig B. Thompson
News & Views 01 Dec 2001
Interferon with dendritic cells?

Specialized mouse DCs exist that can recognize the presence of viral pathogens. New evidence shows that these DCs respond by secreting massive amounts of type I IFNs, which may provoke systemic resistance to such pathogens.

David F. Tough
Arun T. Kamath
News & Views 01 Dec 2001