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Specialized mouse DCs exist that can recognize the presence of viral pathogens. New evidence shows that these DCs respond by secreting massive amounts of type I IFNs, which may provoke systemic resistance to such pathogens.
How immature CD4+CD8+ thymocytes become committed to either the CD4 (helper) or CD8 (cytotoxic) lineage is controversial. Genetic ablation of a silencer element in the gene encoding CD4 provides new evidence that CD8 lineage commitment occurs via a stochastic, rather than instructive, mechanism.
A recent workshop was convened under the auspices of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to examine the relationship of the innate immune system to autoimmune disorders.