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Abramson and colleagues show that the coordinated action of several transcriptional regulators, including Irf4, Irf8, Tbx21, Tcf7 and Ctcfl, acts on medullary-thymic-epithelial-cell-specific accessible regions in the locus encoding the transcriptional regulator Aire to control its expression.
The signaling adaptor TRAF1 is involved in TNFR-induced survival. Watts and colleagues demonstrate that TRAF1 also negatively regulates NF-κB activation by interfering with linear ubiquitination of the signaling subunit NEMO.
Korn and colleagues report that Sirpα+ dendritic cells trans-present the cytokine IL-6 to T cells through a process that requires its receptor IL-6Rα bound to dendritic cells and that trans-presentation is needed to generate pathogenic cells of the TH17 subset of helper T cells in vivo.
Lillemeier and colleagues describe a cycle of recruitment, activation and release of Zap70 kinase at phosphorylated T cell antigen receptors. According to this model, the receptor acts as a ‘catalytic unit’ that amplifies antigenic stimuli.
There are suspected links between air pollution and atopic dermatitis, but the mechanism has remained unclear. Yamamoto and colleagues demonstrate that air pollutants trigger activation of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor in the skin, hyperinnervation and an itch-scratch cycle that leads to atopic dermatitis.
Sant’Angelo and colleagues show that disruption of a hydrophobic patch in the T cell antigen receptor on natural killer T cells alters their development, which results in the selective accumulation of adipose-tissue-specific natural killer T cells.