Volume 14 Issue 6, June 2014

A subset of sensory neurons in the skin is essential for IL-23 production in a model of psoriasis.

Increased expression of S1PR2 in the female central nervous system may contribute to the development of multiple sclerosis.

The nuclear envelope protein lamin A modulates T cell activation by linking processes at the plasma membrane, cytoplasm and nucleus.

NRROS is a negative regulator of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in phagocytes.

IL-10 induced by malaria infection renders the host susceptible to concurrent bacterial infection.

Prostaglandin E2 expression is increased and drives immunosuppression in patients with advanced liver disease.

T cell receptor signalling downregulates p53 expression to enable antigen-stimulated T cells to enter the cell cycle.

The soluble pattern-recognition molecule pentraxin-related protein 3 is important for protection against urinary tract infections.

Tissue-specific factors control the phenotype, localization, proliferative renewal and function of peritoneal macrophages.

In this Review, the authors highlight the importance of the diverse mechanisms that regulate the expression of innate immune genes post transcription. These regulatory mechanisms act at the level of mRNA splicing, mRNA polyadenylation, mRNA stability and protein translation, and they are important for controlling the magnitude and duration of inflammatory responses.

Here, the authors describe the key characteristics of the different antigen-presenting cell (APC) populations that govern T cell development in the thymus. They discuss how the interactions that occur between thymocytes and thymic APCs shape the mature T cell repertoire, and how they subsequently affect the nature of peripheral immune responses.

Our understanding of the ontogeny of monocytes and macrophages, as well as their maintenance in the steady state, has recently undergone a renaissance. Here, Ginhoux and Jung discuss the evidence that has changed our view of the relationship between monocytes and tissue macrophages during development and in the steady state.

Research into the role of commensal microorganisms in influencing the immune system has mainly focused on bacterial communities. Here, the authors review recent studies that highlight the importance of commensal fungi and how the immune system interacts with these communities at different body sites.

Recent studies of ontogeny and gene expression have enabled the discrimination of dendritic cell and macrophage subsets in mouse skin and the identification of their human counterparts, which has led to a growing appreciation of the functional specialization of these subsets.