Volume 12 Issue 5, May 2012

Three papers describe mechanistic links between commensal bacteria and immune disease susceptibility.

The development of medullary thymic epithelial cells and γδ T cells is linked through RANK signalling.

Actin filaments exposed by dying cells are a damage-associated molecular pattern sensed by dendritic cells.

Oral treatment withLactococcus lactismodified to secrete pro-insulin and IL-10, when combined with systemic low-dose CD3-specific antibodies, reverses diabetes in NOD mice.

Most tissue macrophages in mice are derived from the yolk sac and not from haematopoietic stem cells.

Inflammasome activation has a protective effect in age-related macular degeneration.

Immunostimulatory conventional dendritic cells can differentiate into immunosuppressive macrophage-like cells.

In T cells, the kinase mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) integrates immune signals and metabolic cues to control T cell maintenance and activation. This Review describes the role of mTOR in determining T cell fate decisions and the implications of targeting mTOR in the treatment of disease.

Dendritic cells (DCs) are the master regulators of T cell responses to foreign antigens. This Review discusses how the tumour necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily of molecules influences DC biology and the outcome for T cell immune responses.

This Review argues against the historical view of the granuloma as a host-protective structure and provides evidence that the innate immune mechanisms of tuberculous granulomas are involved in the expansion and dissemination of infection.

Here, John MacMicking provides a broad overview of the recently described functional properties of interferon-inducible effector proteins that mediate cell-autonomous host defence against internalized bacteria, protozoa and viruses.

This article looks at the crosstalk between multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) and innate immunity, ranging from haematopoiesis to antimicrobial defences.