Your browser version may not work well with NCBI's Web applications. More information here...
1: Science. 2008 Aug 8;321(5890):843-7.
Related Articles, Links
Click here to read Click here to read Click here to read
Comment in:
Deletional tolerance mediated by extrathymic Aire-expressing cells.

Gardner JM, Devoss JJ, Friedman RS, Wong DJ, Tan YX, Zhou X, Johannes KP, Su MA, Chang HY, Krummel MF, Anderson MS.

Diabetes Center, University of California San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA 94122, USA.

The prevention of autoimmunity requires the elimination of self-reactive T cells during their development and maturation. The expression of diverse self-antigens by stromal cells in the thymus is essential to this process and depends, in part, on the activity of the autoimmune regulator (Aire) gene. Here we report the identification of extrathymic Aire-expressing cells (eTACs) resident within the secondary lymphoid organs. These stromally derived eTACs express a diverse array of distinct self-antigens and are capable of interacting with and deleting naïve autoreactive T cells. Using two-photon microscopy, we observed stable antigen-specific interactions between eTACs and autoreactive T cells. We propose that such a secondary network of self-antigen-expressing stromal cells may help reinforce immune tolerance by preventing the maturation of autoreactive T cells that escape thymic negative selection.

Publication Types:
PMID: 18687966 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

PMCID: PMC2532844 [Available on 02/08/09]