title: Switching on the Aire conditioner.
abstract: Aire has been cloned as the gene responsible for a hereditary type of organ-specific autoimmune disease. Aire controls the expression of a wide array of tissue-restricted Ags by medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs), thereby leading to clonal deletion and Treg-cell production, and ultimately to the establishment of self-tolerance. However, relatively little is known about the mechanism responsible for the control of Aire expression itself. In this issue of the European Journal of Immunology, Haljasorg et al. [Eur. J. Immunol. 2015. 45: 3246-3256] have reported the presence of an enhancer element for Aire that binds with NF-κB components downstream of the TNF receptor family member, RANK (receptor activator of NF-κB). The results suggest that RANK has a dual mode of action in Aire expression: one involving the promotion of mTEC differentiation and the other involving activation of the molecular switch for Aire within mature mTECs.
authors.affiliation: Division of Molecular Immunology, Institute for Enzyme Research, Tokushima University, Tokushima, Japan.|Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development-Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Mitsuru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D016328:NF-kappa B / Q000502:physiology; D053246:Receptor Activator of Nuclear Factor-kappa B / Q000502:physiology; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000166:cytology; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D000096927:AIRE Protein
chemical_list: D016328:NF-kappa B; D053246:Receptor Activator of Nuclear Factor-kappa B; D014157:Transcription Factors; D000096927:AIRE Protein
keywords: Aire; Enhancer; NF-κB; Receptor activator of NF-κB; Thymic medulla