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A goal of vaccination is to elicit and maintain tissue-resident memory T cells. Amsen and colleagues show human lung-resident memory CD8+ T cells express distinct transcriptional programs, including a role for Notch in cellular metabolism and maintenance.
Holländer and colleagues provide a map of genes that are direct targets of the transcription factor Foxn1 in thymic epithelial cells and show that Foxn1 controls genes encoding products involved in thymocyte development, antigen processing and thymocyte selection.
Immunologic memory promotes faster and more-efficient responses after re-exposure to pathogens. Ahmed and colleagues characterize a subset of human B cells that arise after vaccination against or exposure to influenza or Ebola virus and contribute to the memory cell pool.
Boss and colleagues provide mechanistic insight into cell-division-coupled transcriptional and epigenetic reprogramming events during plasma cell differentiation.
The contribution of stromal cells to the microenvironment of tumor-draining lymph nodes is poorly characterized. By comparative transcriptional analysis, Shields and colleagues find that tumors induce the stromal reprogramming of key pathways that affect the structure and function of such lymph nodes.
Austen and colleagues assess the transcriptional profiles of mast cells isolated from peripheral connective tissues and basophils isolated from spleen and blood. Mast cells show a unique tissue profile and minimal homology with basophils or other immunocytes.
Invariant natural killer T cells recognize lipid antigens presented by CD1d molecules and are capable of copious cytokine production. Kronenberg and colleagues show that distinct transcriptional and epigenetic profiles can be ascribed to the NKT1, NKT2 and NKT17 subsets of these cells.
Using a systems-biology approach, Liston and colleagues profile the
immune system of 670 healthy volunteers to provide a description of the
population-level heterogeneity in the cellular composition of the circulating immune
system.
Several populations of innate lymphoid cells have been identified by their cytokine and transcription factor expression. Mjösberg and colleagues report considerable heterogeneity within human tonsil innate lymphoid cell subpopulations, as revealed by single-cell RNA-sequencing profiling.
Vaccination offers protection against infectious diseases, yet pre-existing criteria that predict vaccine efficacy or adverse events remain unknown. Hayday and colleagues identify cellular and molecular signatures in humans immunized with adjuvanted swine flu vaccine.