Invariant natural killer T cells trigger adaptive lymphocytes to churn up bile.
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.
Joyce
Sebastian
S
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232, USA. sebastian.joyce@vanderbilt.edu
Van Kaer
Luc
L
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*