NLRC5 shields T lymphocytes from NK-cell-mediated elimination under inflammatory conditions
Open Access
- 10 February 2016
- journal article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nature Communications
- Vol. 7 (1), 10554
- https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10554
Abstract
NLRC5 is a transcriptional regulator of MHC class I (MHCI), which maintains high MHCI expression particularly in T cells. Recent evidence highlights an important NK–T-cell crosstalk, raising the question on whether NLRC5 specifically modulates this interaction. Here we show that NK cells from Nlrc5-deficient mice exhibit moderate alterations in inhibitory receptor expression and responsiveness. Interestingly, NLRC5 expression in T cells is required to protect them from NK-cell-mediated elimination upon inflammation. Using T-cell-specific Nlrc5-deficient mice, we show that NK cells surprisingly break tolerance even towards ‘self’ Nlrc5-deficient T cells under inflammatory conditions. Furthermore, during chronic LCMV infection, the total CD8+ T-cell population is severely decreased in these mice, a phenotype reverted by NK-cell depletion. These findings strongly suggest that endogenous T cells with low MHCI expression become NK-cell targets, having thus important implications for T-cell responses in naturally or therapeutically induced inflammatory conditions.This publication has 49 references indexed in Scilit:
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