Interferon-producing killer dendritic cells (IKDCs) are a recently described subset of CD11c(lo)B220(+) cells that share phenotypic and functional properties of DCs and natural killer (NK) cells (Chan, C.W., E. Crafton, H.N. Fan, J. Flook, K. Yoshimura, M. Skarica, D. Brockstedt, T.W. Dubensky, M.F. Stins, L.L. Lanier, et al. 2006. Nat. Med. 12:207-213; Taieb, J., N. Chaput, C. Menard, L. Apeto...

Pediatric pre-B acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) may develop from prenatal chromosomal translocations acquired in utero. For instance, the ETV6-RUNX1 gene rearrangement that occurs in ~25% of childhood ALL clones is found in the umbilical cord blood and Guthrie blood spots of 1 in 100 healthy newborns [1]. Despite a high frequency of occurrence of ETV6-RUNX1 in healthy neonates, only 1 in 14,...

Evaluation of the protective efficacy of recombinant T-cell-reactive proteins of Coccidioides posadasii in a murine model of coccidioidomycosis has led to the discovery of potential vaccines against this respiratory disease. A recombinant proline-rich antigen (rAg2/Pra) has been reported to be a leading vaccine candidate. However, contradictory results exist on the protection afforded by this a...

The first step of V(D)J recombination, specific cleavage at the recombination signal sequence (RSS), can be carried out by the recombination activating proteins RAG1 and RAG2. In vivo, the cleaved coding and signal ends must be rejoined to generate functional antigen receptors and maintain chromosomal integrity. We have investigated signal joint formation using deletion and inversion substrates...

Aphis glycines Matsumura (Hemiptera: Aphididae) can reduce the yield of aphid-susceptible soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill) cultivars. The Rag1 and Rag2 genes conferresistance to some biotypes of A. glycines. These genes individually can limit population growth of A. glycines and prevent yield loss. The impact of these genes when combined is not known. We compared the development of A. glycine...

The TEL-JAK2 gene fusion, which has been identified in human leukemia, encodes a chimeric protein endowed with constitutive tyrosine kinase activity. TEL-JAK2 transgenic expression in the mouse lymphoid lineage results in fatal and rapid T-cell leukemia/lymphoma. In the present report we show that T-cell leukemic cells from EmuSRalpha-TEL-JAK2 transgenic mice present an aberrant CD8(+) differen...

Programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) is an inhibitory coreceptor on immune cells and is essential for self-tolerance because mice genetically lacking PD-1 (PD-1(-/-)) develop spontaneous autoimmune diseases. PD-1(-/-) mice are also susceptible to severe experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), characterized by a massive production of effector/memory T cells against myelin autoantigen, the mec...

RAG1 and RAG2 initiate V(D)J recombination, the process of rearranging the antigen-binding domain of immunoglobulins and T-cell receptors, by introducing site-specific double-strand breaks (DSB) in chromosomal DNA during lymphocyte development. These breaks are generated in two steps, nicking of one strand (hydrolysis), followed by hairpin formation (transesterification). The nature and locatio...

The contributions of TGF-b signaling to cancer are complex but involve the inflammatory microenvironment as well as cancer cells themselves. In mice encoding a TGF-b mutant that precludes its binding to the latent TGF-b binding protein (Tgfb1 ), we observed multiorgan inflammation and an elevated incidence of various types of gastrointestinal solid tumors due to impaired conversion of latent to...