Aire Disruption Influences the Medullary Thymic Epithelial Cell Transcriptome and Interaction With Thymocytes

Thymic Medullary Epithelial Cells Are Lymphotoxin Pathway and Aire Influences

In vitro co-culture systems for studying molecular basis of cellular interaction between Aire-expressing medullary thymic epithelial cells and fresh thymocytes

We previously established three mouse cell lines (Aire(+)TEC1, Aire(+)TEC2 and Aire(+)DC) from the medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) and dendritic cells (mDCs). These cells constitutively expressed "autoimmune regulator (Aire) gene" and they exhibited various features of self antigen-presenting cells (self-APCs) present in the thymic medullary region. Here, we confirmed our previous obs...

Ltbetar signaling does not regulate Aire-dependent transcripts in medullary thymic epithelial cells.

Thymic medullary epithelial cells (mTECs) play a major role in central tolerance induction by expressing tissue-specific Ags (TSAs). The expression of a subset of TSAs in mTECs is under the control of Aire (autoimmune regulator). Humans defective for AIRE develop a syndrome characterized by autoimmune disease in several endocrine glands. Aire has been proposed to be regulated by lymphotoxin bet...

Promiscuous mRNA splicing under the control of AIRE in medullary thymic epithelial cells

MOTIVATION The expression of tissue-restricted antigens (TRAs) in the thymus is required to ensure efficient negative selection of potentially auto-reactive T lymphocytes and avoid autoimmune disease. This promiscuous expression is under the control of the autoimmune regulator (AIRE), a transcription factor expressed in medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs). Tissue-specific alternative spli...

Gene expression Promiscuous mRNA splicing under the control of AIRE in medullary thymic epithelial cells

Motivation: The expression of tissue-restricted antigens (TRAs) in the thymus is required to ensure efficient negative selection of potentially auto-reactive T lymphocytes and avoid autoimmune disease. This promiscuous expression is under the control of the autoimmune regulator (AIRE), a transcription factor expressed in medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs). Tissue-specific alternative spl...