Innate immune cells articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The mechanisms underlying immunpathologies in dengue virus (DENV) infection are incompletely understood. Here, authors show that TLR2 recognizes DENV particles inducing cytokine expression and activating vascular endothelium cells in vitro, and that TLR2 expression on monocytes correlates with disease severity in patients.

    • José A. Aguilar-Briseño
    • , Vinit Upasani
    •  & Izabela A. Rodenhuis-Zybert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Immune cells are important regulators of adipose tissue function, including adaptive thermogenesis. Here the authors show that mice with Krüppel-like factor 3 (KLF3) deficiency in bone marrow-derived cells have increased adipose tissue beiging which may at least in part be due to altered eosinophil paracrine signaling.

    • Alexander J. Knights
    • , Emily J. Vohralik
    •  & Kate G. R. Quinlan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Anti-Ly6G or ant-Gr1 antibodies are commonly used to deplete neutrophils in vivo. Here the authors provide mechanistic insight into why these approaches may not specifically or durably reduce the number of neutrophils in mice, and also present a new method that overcomes these limitations to have potentially wide applicability in experimental studies.

    • Gael Boivin
    • , Julien Faget
    •  & Etienne Meylan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Zika virus (ZIKV) poses a significant public health threat, but the immune landscape changes following ZIKV infection is still unclear. Here, the authors show, using flow cytometry and transcriptomic data, that ZIKV induces a multitude of immune responses, with plasmacytoid dendritic cells poised centrally to interact with other immune cell types.

    • Xiaoming Sun
    • , Stephane Hua
    •  & Xu G. Yu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Immune tolerance is mediated by the deletion of autoreactive T cells via medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTEC) and dendritic cells (DC), and by the induction of regulatory T cells (Treg). Here the authors show that mTEC receiving toll-like receptor signaling control the recruitment of CD14+Sirpα+ DC population that is capable of inducing Treg for establishing tolerance.

    • Matouš Vobořil
    • , Tomáš Brabec
    •  & Dominik Filipp

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Extracellular vesicles can carry immunoregulatory cytokines such as TGF-β. Here the authors use CD11b-deficient mice and macrophages to show that such vesicles carrying TGF-β are produced in response to Candida albicans infections and can limit the proinflammatory response partly via a positive feedback on TGF-β production by endothelial cells.

    • Luke D. Halder
    • , Emeraldo A. H. Jo
    •  & Christine Skerka

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Macrophage activation is integral to innate immunity and inflammation, and involves transcriptome remodeling leading to the rapid upregulation of pro- and anti-inflammatory effector genes. Here the authors show that the negative elongation factor (NELF) complex controls the transcription of anti-inflammatory genes through Pol II pause release.

    • Li Yu
    • , Bin Zhang
    •  & Xiaoyu Hu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Renal macrophages (RMs) can be of bone marrow or embryonic origin, but their abundance, fate and metabolic profiles in physiological and pathogenic settings are still unclear. Here the authors show, by characterizing these two RMs in multiple transgenic mouse lines, that they exhibit distinct dynamics, homeostasis, immune activity, and metabolic properties.

    • Fengming Liu
    • , Shen Dai
    •  & Xuebin Qin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In macrophages, IL-1β secretion is mediated by N-GSDMD pores in the plasma membrane (PM). Here the authors show that in neutrophils, IL-1β secretion occurs in the absence of PM pores, via autophagosomes; N-GSDMD does not traffic to PM but to azurophilic granules, thereby releasing neutrophil elastase which cleaves further N-GSDMD into alternative fragments.

    • Mausita Karmakar
    • , Martin Minns
    •  & Eric Pearlman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Classical human dendritic cells (cDCs) are rare sentinel cells specialized in regulating adaptive immunity. Here, the authors show that expression of membrane bound FLT3L, along with stem cell factor (SCF) and CXCL12 in stromal cells induces specification of pre/AS-DCs, type 1 and type2 cDC from haematopoietic stem cells.

    • Giorgio Anselmi
    • , Kristine Vaivode
    •  & Pierre Guermonprez

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Murine ILCs can modulate T cell responses in MHCII-dependent manner. Here the authors show that human ILCs process and present antigens and induce T-cell responses upon exposure to IL-1-family cytokines; along with the article by Lehmann et al, this work elucidates how cytokines set context specificity of ILC-T cell crosstalk by regulating ILC antigen presentation.

    • Anna Rao
    • , Otto Strauss
    •  & Jenny Mjösberg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Neutrophils employ several mechanisms to control the growth of fungi, including enzymes, reactive oxygen species, extracellular traps, and formation of “swarms”. Here, Hopke et al. study how the different mechanisms work together, using an in vitro assay with human neutrophils and clusters of live Candida cells.

    • Alex Hopke
    • , Allison Scherer
    •  & Daniel Irimia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The molecular mechanisms that drive irreversible acute liver failure remain poorly characterized. Here, the authors show that the recently discovered platelet receptor CLEC-2 (C-type lectin-like receptor) perpetuates and worsens liver damage during acute liver injury by blocking restorative neutrophil driven inflammation.

    • Abhishek Chauhan
    • , Lozan Sheriff
    •  & Patricia F. Lalor

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Group 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC3s) promote T cell activation in the spleen but suppress it in the gut. Here, the authors show that this distinct regulation is mediated by gut microbiota-induced IL-23 and IFN-γ, respectively, and, along with the article by Rao et al, this work elucidates how cytokines set context specificity of ILC-T cell crosstalk by regulating ILC antigen presentation.

    • Frank Michael Lehmann
    • , Nicole von Burg
    •  & Daniela Finke

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Glycogen can be metabolized via glycogenolysis and the pentose phosphate pathway as well as into the production of UDP glucose, which when secreted can bind the P2Y14 receptor. Here the authors show how these glycogen metabolism pathways contribute to proinflammatory macrophage activation and susceptibility to sepsis.

    • Jingwei Ma
    • , Keke Wei
    •  & Bo Huang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Macrophages can differentiate to perform homeostatic tissue-specific functions. Here the authors show that RXR signalling is critical for large peritoneal macrophage (LPM) expansion during neonatal life and LPM lipid metabolism and survival during adult homeostasis, and that ovarian cancer growth relies on RXR-dependent LPMs. 

    • María Casanova-Acebes
    • , María Piedad Menéndez-Gutiérrez
    •  & Mercedes Ricote

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lamina propria macrophages are at the frontline of defense against intestinal pathogens. Here the authors reveal that CCR2 and NR4A1-dependent CX3CR1+ macrophages form a dense network around the vessels in the lamina propria, and implicate this anatomical structure into prevention of systemic bacterial dissemination.

    • Masaki Honda
    • , Bas G. J. Surewaard
    •  & Paul Kubes

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Innate lymphoid cells (ILC) are important immune cells for maintaining the gut homeostasis. Here the authors show that c-FLIP, an anti-apoptotic molecule, is important for the development of NKP46+ ILC1, including conventional natural killer (cNK) cells, and ILC3, with cNK being more critical for ameliorating intestinal inflammation.

    • Ute Bank
    • , Katrin Deiser
    •  & Thomas Schüler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Macrophage activation is tightly regulated to maintain immune homeostasis, yet activation is also heterogeneous. Here, the authors show that macrophages coordinate activation by partitioning into two phenotypes that can nonlinearly amplify collective inflammatory cytokine production as a function of cell density.

    • Joseph J. Muldoon
    • , Yishan Chuang
    •  & Joshua N. Leonard

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Production of inflammatory mediators by M1-polarized macrophages is thought to rely on suppression of mitochondrial metabolism in favor of glycolysis. Refining this concept, here the authors define metabolic targets of nitric oxide as responsible for the mitochondrial rewiring resulting from polarization.

    • Erika M. Palmieri
    • , Marieli Gonzalez-Cotto
    •  & Daniel W. McVicar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Macrophages mediate the fibrotic response after a heart attack by extracellular matrix turnover and cardiac fibroblasts activation. Here the authors identify an evolutionarily-conserved function of macrophages that contributes directly to the forming post-injury scar through cell-autonomous deposition of collagen.

    • Filipa C. Simões
    • , Thomas J. Cahill
    •  & Paul R. Riley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A polymorphism in human TP53 (P47S) that predominantly exists in individuals of African descent affects ferroptosis. Here, the authors show that this results in iron accumulation in macrophages leading to more productive infection by intracellular bacteria but improved anti-inflammatory response to the malarial toxin hemozoin.

    • Kumar Sachin Singh
    • , Julia I-Ju Leu
    •  & Farokh Dotiwala

  • Article
    | Open Access

    As an interface between maternal and fetal tissues, decidua hosts immune cells specialized in fostering a successful pregnancy. Here the authors carry out high-dimensional characterization of function, morphology and surface markers of human decidual innate lymphoid cells (ILCs), identifying subsets with features distinct from blood ILC.

    • Oisín Huhn
    • , Martin A. Ivarsson
    •  & Francesco Colucci

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Langerhans cells (LC) can prime tolerogenic as well as immunogenic responses in the skin. Here the authors show, by transcriptomic, epigenetic and CRISPR editing analyses, that during LC migration and maturation the transcription factor IRF4 regulates expression of antigen presentation and co-stimulatory gene modules while attenuating inflammatory response genes.

    • Sofia Sirvent
    • , Andres F. Vallejo
    •  & Marta E. Polak

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Antimicrobial peptide LL37 can bind nucleic acids and potentiate their sensing by endosomal TLRs. Here the authors show that LL37 binds to RNA from neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), which amplifies inflammation and production of more LL37 and NETs via TLR8/13, suggesting that LL37 contribution to psoriasis may be fueled by NET-associated RNA.

    • Franziska Herster
    • , Zsofia Bittner
    •  & Alexander N. R. Weber

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Traction force microscopy is an effective method for measuring cellular forces but it is limited by planar geometry. Here the authors develop a facile method to produce deformable hydrogel particles and a reference-free computational method to resolve surface traction forces from particle shape deformation.

    • Daan Vorselen
    • , Yifan Wang
    •  & Julie A. Theriot

  • Article
    | Open Access

    TGF-β is thought to be important for group 2 innate lymphoid cell (ILC2) function. Here the authors show that TGF-β drives expression of ST2 specifically in ILC2 progenitors and thereby is also important for the development of ILC2s in the bone marrow.

    • Li Wang
    • , Jun Tang
    •  & WanJun Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Innate immune cells can be trained by some stimuli or pathogen exposures to be metabolically and epigenetically altered such that they have different responses to subsequent exposures. Here the authors show that low-dose LPS trained macrophages and BCG-trained macrophages have opposing effects on fibrosis and inflammation in the context of systemic sclerosis.

    • Mohamed Jeljeli
    • , Luiza Gama Coelho Riccio
    •  & Frédéric Batteux

  • Article
    | Open Access

    ‘Missing self’ is a mode of natural killer (NK) cell activation aimed to detect the lack of HLA-I molecules on infected or neoplastic cells. Here, the authors show that mismatch between donor HLA-I and cognate receptors on recipient NK cells mediates microvascular inflammation-associated graft rejection, a pathology that is preventable by mTOR inhibition.

    • Alice Koenig
    • , Chien-Chia Chen
    •  & Olivier Thaunat

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Brain damage induces systemic inflammation, but insights and implication of this induction is still unclear. Here the authors show, using rat and mouse focal cerebral ischemia models, that the damaged brain signals via the VEGF-C/VEFGR3 axis to activate inflammatory responses in the draining cervical lymph nodes to induce systemic inflammation.

    • Elga Esposito
    • , Bum Ju Ahn
    •  & Kazuhide Hayakawa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    NLRP3 activation by Leishmania parasites is critical to the outcome of the disease. Here the authors show that LRV, a virus infecting Leishmania strains associated with more severe human disease, enables the parasite to suppress the inflammasome by activating type 1 interferon through TLR3, which leads to autophagy-mediated NLRP3 degradation.

    • Renan V. H. de Carvalho
    • , Djalma S. Lima-Junior
    •  & Dario S. Zamboni

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Inflammatory responses must be induced and resolved timely to serve protection from pathogens without inducing excessive tissue damage. Here the authors use live imaging in zebrafish to show that the intracellular trafficking of two chemokine receptors, Cxcr1 and Cxcr2, is differentially regulated on activated neutrophils to control their clustering and dispersal, respectively.

    • Caroline Coombs
    • , Antonios Georgantzoglou
    •  & Milka Sarris

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Interleukin-7 (IL-7) is a central cytokine in T cell homeostasis. Here the authors show that allelic variation at rs6897932, an autoimmune GWAS risk allele at IL7R, regulates surface and soluble IL-7R in stimulated monocytes, indicating a function of monocytes in IL-7-related autoimmunity.

    • Hussein Al-Mossawi
    • , Nicole Yager
    •  & Benjamin P. Fairfax

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Immunotherapy can induce antigen spreading of antitumor T cell response, which correlates with better outcomes. Here the authors show that tissue-resident memory CD8 T cells promote antigen spreading via lysing tumor cells and promoting their uptake and cross-presentation by dendritic cells, thereby eliciting de novo T cell responses.

    • Evelyn Menares
    • , Felipe Gálvez-Cancino
    •  & Alvaro Lladser

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sexual dimorphism is observed frequently in immune disorders, but the underlying insights are still unclear. Here the authors analyze transcriptome and epigenome changes induced by interferon in various mouse immune cell types, and find only a restricted set of sexual dimorphism genes in innate immunity and macrophages.

    • Shani Talia Gal-Oz
    • , Barbara Maier
    •  & Tal Shay

  • Article
    | Open Access

    TRIF is an important adaptor protein for mediating Toll-like receptor (TLR) 3 and TLR4 signaling. Here the authors show that the deubiquitinating enzymes USP19, as well as the E3 ubiquitin ligase complex Cullin-3-Rbx1-KCTD10, modulates TRIF K523 ubiquitination and thereby TRIF recruitment to TLR3/4 to control innate immunity.

    • Xin Wu
    • , Caoqi Lei
    •  & Hong-Bing Shu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Na+-H+ exchanger 1 (Nhe1) regulates extracellular pH by extruding protons in exchange for extracellular Na+ . Here, Liu et al. show that Nhe1 promotes the development and acidification of atherosclerotic lesions and that pH-sensitive probes can be used to monitor plaque growth and acidification.

    • Cong-Lin Liu
    • , Xian Zhang
    •  & Guo-Ping Shi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Functional diversity of tissue-resident macrophages and signals governing their ontogeny and turnover remain unknown for the majority of tissues. Here the authors describe two phenotypically and functionally distinct long-lived populations of lung interstitial macrophages and their putative blood-derived monocytic precursor.

    • Joey Schyns
    • , Qiang Bai
    •  & Thomas Marichal

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Natural killer (NK) cells are important innate immune cells with diverse functions. Here the authors use single-cell RNA-sequencing of purified human bone marrow and peripheral blood NK cells to define five populations of NK cells with distinct transcriptomic profile to further our understanding of NK development and heterogeneity.

    • Chao Yang
    • , Jason R. Siebert
    •  & Subramaniam Malarkannan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tumor associated macrophages are functionally and phenotypically heterogeneous. Here the authors describe the spatial distribution of distinct macrophage populations within regions of gastric cancer and probe their associations with clinical outcomes, gene signatures and PDL1 expression.

    • Yu-Kuan Huang
    • , Minyu Wang
    •  & Alex Boussioutas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, Zimmer et al. analyze the natural killer (NK) cell response in a patient cohort with acute dengue virus infection showing early NK cell activation and proliferation, and the data suggest that NK cell proliferation depends on IL-18 signaling, and that responding NK cells have a skin-homing phenotype.

    • Christine L. Zimmer
    • , Martin Cornillet
    •  & Niklas K. Björkström

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Detailed characterizations of human lung tissue-resident natural killer (trNK) cells, which potentially regulate local immune responses, is still lacking. Here the authors show that lung CD69+ CD16– NK cells express tissue-residency markers, produce effector cytokines, and are distinct, feature-wise, from lung CD8+ memory T cells or trNK in other tissues.

    • Nicole Marquardt
    • , Eliisa Kekäläinen
    •  & Jakob Michaëlsson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Clearance of apoptotic neutrophils by macrophages is important for the resolution of inflammation. Here, the authors show that interferon-β produced by resolution phase macrophages promotes neutrophil apoptosis and efferocytosis and induces macrophage reprogramming to a pro-resolving phenotype, thereby identifying IFN-β as a multi-pronged pro-resolution cytokine.

    • Senthil Kumaran Satyanarayanan
    • , Driss El Kebir
    •  & Amiram Ariel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Group 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC3s) have important functions in inflammatory bowel disease. Here, the authors show that TL1A/DR3 signalling stimulates ILC3s to produce GM-CSF, thereby recruiting inflammatory cells, which results in subsequent IL-23-dependent loss of ILC3s and further intestinal inflammation.

    • Jingyu Li
    • , Wenli Shi
    •  & Ju Qiu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Macrophage activation is synergistically controlled by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and interferon-γ (IFN-γ). Here the authors show that IFN-γ promotes macrophage activation not only by activating STAT1-dependent genes, but also by suppressing STAT3-dependent negative feedback regulation downstream of LPS signaling.

    • Kyuho Kang
    • , Mahesh Bachu
    •  & Lionel B. Ivashkiv

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