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  • Title: NF-κB-inducing kinase in thymic stroma establishes central tolerance by orchestrating cross-talk with not only thymocytes but also dendritic cells.
    Author: Mouri Y, Nishijima H, Kawano H, Hirota F, Sakaguchi N, Morimoto J, Matsumoto M.
    Journal: J Immunol; 2014 Nov 01; 193(9):4356-67. PubMed ID: 25261487.
    Abstract:
    Essential roles of NF-κB-inducing kinase (NIK) for the development of medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) and regulatory T cells have been highlighted by studies using a strain of mouse bearing a natural mutation of the NIK gene (aly mice). However, the exact mechanisms underlying the defect in thymic cross-talk leading to the breakdown of self-tolerance in aly mice remain elusive. In this study, we demonstrated that production of regulatory T cells and the final maturation process of positively selected conventional αβ T cells are impaired in aly mice, partly because of a lack of mature mTECs. Of note, numbers of thymic dendritic cells and their expression of costimulatory molecules were also affected in aly mice in a thymic stroma-dependent manner. The results suggest a pivotal role of NIK in the thymic stroma in establishing self-tolerance by orchestrating cross-talk between mTECs and dendritic cells as well as thymocytes. In addition, we showed that negative selection was impaired in aly mice as a result of the stromal defect, which accounts for the development of organ-specific autoimmunity through a lack of normal NIK.
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