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As we celebrate 50 years since his seminal Nature paper describing separate lineages for B cells and T cells in the chicken, Max Cooper looks back at the early discoveries that made this breakthrough possible and describes how the B cell field emerged.
The germinal centre (GC) reaction is a highly complex and regulated process. As described in this Review, recent studies have revealed dynamic cellular states in the GC, the requirements for selection of B cells that express high-affinity antibodies and the recirculation of B cells between zones of the GC.
Skin immunity can be promoted by bacterial skin commensals that induce distinct CD8+T cell responses and by adipocytes that produce antimicrobial peptides.
Type I interferons have multiple direct and indirect effects on immune cells during infectious diseases. For the most part, they protect the host against infection, but they can also have adverse effects on the host. The existence of complex cross-regulatory networks involving type I interferons helps to ensure host protection with minimum host damage.
In addition to avoiding immune attack in the primary tumour, metastatic cancer cells can harness suppressive immune cells to help promote and protect them from immune surveillance as they travel from the primary tumour site, through blood or lymphatic vessels, to the metastatic site. Thus, targeting pro-metastatic immune cells may offer new therapeutic strategies for treating the major cause of death from cancer — metastatic disease.
The accumulation of cholesterol in macrophages and other immune cells promotes inflammatory responses. Inflammation, in turn, reduces the normal physiological excretion of cholesterol, which amplifies the inflammatory response and promotes myelopoiesis. Here, the authors detail the mechanisms by which cholesterol accumulation affects immune signalling pathways and highlight potential therapeutic interventions that may have benefits for metabolic diseases.
This Review describes the immune responses that occur in the heart, explaining how different innate and adaptive immune cell populations can have beneficial or detrimental roles during cardiac tissue injury. In particular, the authors focus on the unique macrophage subsets that are found in the heart and their roles in regenerating damaged cardiac tissue.