Volume 11 Issue 6, June 2011

T cell fate is determined by the unequal degradation of a key transcriptional regulator.

The lipogenic transcription factor SREBP1a links lipogenesis and inflammasome activation in macrophages.

Stromal cells respond to TLR ligands by promoting the emigration of monocytes from bone marrow niches during infection.

PI3Kβ integrates signals downstream of FcγRs and GPCRs in response to immune complexes.

GM-CSF mediates the encephalitogenic function of T_H1 and T_H17 cells during CNS autoimmunity through the recruitment and activation of APCs.

A phagocytic synapse regulates dectin 1-induced antimicrobial responses.

CD4⁺T cells promote arteriole remodelling and enhance lymphocyte recruitment to reactive lymph nodes.

TRIM5 has a general role in cellular immunity through the activation of innate immune signalling pathways.

Guanylate-binding proteins mediate antimicrobial host defence against intracellular pathogens.

Exciting new studies have uncovered many of the molecules and cell types that contribute to 'type 2' immune responses. Here, Judith Allen and Rick Maizels discuss how these responses are generated and provide protective immunity during helminth infection.

Mitochondria are emerging as important players in innate immunity: they act as signalling platforms for antiviral molecules, produce reactive oxygen species that influence both antiviral and antibacterial immune responses and are a source of factors that initiate sterile inflammation.

It is well appreciated that sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) and its receptors have important roles in controlling lymphocyte migration. This Review discusses the emerging evidence that S1P is involved in other immune responses and considers the clinical implications of this.

Integrins are molecules with dynamic structure that are expressed by all leukocytes. This Review discusses the current knowledge on how these surface molecules integrate intracellular and environmental signals and modify their structure, thereby contributing to the activation and migration of T cells.

Erica Herzog and colleagues put forward the opinion that fibrocytes, a little-studied population of monocyte-derived cells that have properties of both macrophages and fibroblasts, have unique roles in chronic inflammation that warrant further study.