title: Invariant natural killer T cells trigger adaptive lymphocytes to churn up bile.
abstract: How innate immune response causes autoimmunity has remained an enigma. In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Mattner et al. demonstrate that invariant natural killer T cells activated by the mucosal commensal Novosphingobium aromaticivorans precipitate chronic T cell-mediated autoimmunity against small bile ducts that mirrors human primary biliary cirrhosis. These findings provide a mechanistic understanding of the role of innate immunity toward a microbe in the development of autoimmunity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232, USA. sebastian.joyce@vanderbilt.edu
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Joyce
authors.forename: Luc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Van Kaer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015551:Autoimmunity; D006801:Humans; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000276:immunology*; D008105:Liver Cirrhosis, Biliary / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology*