Basophils articles from across Nature Portfolio

Basophils have been implicated in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), as evidenced by the fact that basophil-deficient mice do not develop the disease. Here, the authors demonstrate that PD-L1 and IL-4 expression in basophils promotes the pathogenic accumulation of follicular helper T cells in patients with SLE and murine models.

Single cell sequencing can be used to better characterize immune cell progenitors. Here the authors characterize CLEC12A^hi pre-basophils downstream of pre-basophil and mast cell progenitors (pre-BMPs) but upstream of mature basophils and this population includes basophil progenitors (BaPs).

How fibrosis and inflammation are integrated is not entirely clear. Here the authors show that profibrotic proximal tubular cells in the kidneys recruit basophils and activate them to produce interleukin-6 and drive T_H17 cell responses.

Puan and San Luis et al. find that FUT6, encoding a fucosyltransferase, is required for the “rolling” behavior of certain white blood cells that enables them to move from blood vessels to tissues. They show that FUT6 deficiency leads to a loss of the tetrasaccharide sLex on the surface of basophils, resulting in cells that are less sticky and therefore less able to form the necessary adhesions for exiting the blood vessel to drive the allergic reaction.

Basophils are type 2 immune response cells, but they have also been associated with fibrosis. New data indicate that proximal tubule cells exert profibrotic effects by recruiting IL-6-producing basophils into the kidneys.

A new study now shows that basophils can influence cardiac remodelling after myocardial infarction. Despite their low number in the injured myocardium, basophils strongly affected other immune cells involved in cardiac repair and remodelling in mice, promoting cardiac healing by facilitating the polarization of reparative macrophages.

A preprint by Gschwend et al. describes the intercellular crosstalk between alveolar type 2 epithelial cells and basophils via GM-CSF that directs the development and maintenance of alveolar macrophages.

To keep tissue pathology at bay following nematode infection, basophils ensure that group 2 innate lymphoid cells can respond to neuron-derived signals to temper their activity.

TSLP and basophils collaborate to cause food allergy.