Cutting Edge: Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells in Late-Stage Lupus Mice Defective in Producing IFN-α.

ABSTRACT: Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) are professional type I IFN producers believed to promote lupus. However, questions exist about whether they function at the same level throughout the course of lupus disease. We analyzed high-purity pDCs sorted from lupus mice. Although pDCs produced a large amount of IFN-α during disease initiation, those sorted from late-stage lupus mice were found to be defective in producing IFN-α. These pDCs expressed an increased level of MHC, suggesting a functional drift to Ag presentation. We examined the potential mechanism behind the defect and identified a novel transcriptional factor, Foxj2, which repressed the expression of several genes in pDCs, but not IFN-α. Dysregulation in pDCs appears to be predisposed, because they exhibited an altered transcription

SUBMITTER: Liao X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7569487 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature