TY  - JOUR
A1  - Klein-Hessling, Stefan
A1  - Rudolf, Ronald
A1  - Muhammad, Khalid
A1  - Knobeloch, Klaus-Peter
A1  - Maqbool, Muhammad Ahmad
A1  - Cauchy, Pierre
A1  - Andrau, Jean-Christophe
A1  - Avots, Andris
A1  - Talora, Claudio
A1  - Ellenrieder, Volker
A1  - Screpanti, Isabella
A1  - Serfling, Edgar
A1  - Patra, Amiya Kumar
T1  - A threshold level of NFATc1 activity facilitates thymocyte differentiation and opposes notch-driven leukaemia development
JF  - Nature Communications
N2  - NFATc1 plays a critical role in double-negative thymocyte survival and differentiation. However, the signals that regulate Nfatc1 expression are incompletely characterized. Here we show a developmental stage-specific differential expression pattern of Nfatc1 driven by the distal (P1) or proximal (P2) promoters in thymocytes. Whereas, preTCR-negative thymocytes exhibit only P2 promoter-derived Nfatc1β expression, preTCR-positive thymocytes express both Nfatc1β and P1 promoter-derived Nfatc1α transcripts. Inducing NFATc1α activity from P1 promoter in preTCR-negative thymocytes, in addition to the NFATc1β from P2 promoter impairs thymocyte development resulting in severe T-cell lymphopenia. In addition, we show that NFATc1 activity suppresses the B-lineage potential of immature thymocytes, and consolidates their differentiation to T cells. Further, in the pTCR-positive DN3 cells, a threshold level of NFATc1 activity is vital in facilitating T-cell differentiation and to prevent Notch3-induced T-acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Altogether, our results show NFATc1 activity is crucial in determining the T-cell fate of thymocytes.
KW  - acute lymphocytic leukaemia
KW  - transcription factors
KW  - lymphocyte differentiation
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-172974
VL  - 7
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Alrefai, Hani
A1  - Muhammad, Khalid
A1  - Rudolf, Ronald
A1  - Pham, Duong Anh Thuy
A1  - Klein-Hessling, Stefan
A1  - Patra, Amiya K.
A1  - Avots, Andris
A1  - Bukur, Valesca
A1  - Sahin,, Ugur
A1  - Tenzer, Stefan
A1  - Goebeler, Matthias
A1  - Kerstan, Andreas
A1  - Serfling, Edgar
T1  - NFATc1 supports imiquimod-induced skin inflammation by suppressing IL-10 synthesis in B cells
JF  - Nature Communications
N2  - Epicutaneous application of Aldara cream containing the TLR7 agonist imiquimod (IMQ) to mice induces skin inflammation that exhibits many aspects of psoriasis, an inflammatory human skin disease. Here we show that mice depleted of B cells or bearing interleukin (IL)-10-deficient B cells show a fulminant inflammation upon IMQ exposure, whereas ablation of NFATc1 in B cells results in a suppression of Aldara-induced inflammation. In vitro, IMQ induces the proliferation and IL-10 expression by B cells that is blocked by BCR signals inducing NFATc1. By binding to HDAC1, a transcriptional repressor, and to an intronic site of the Il10 gene, NFATc1 suppresses IL-10 expression that dampens the production of tumour necrosis factor-α and IL-17 by T cells. These data indicate a close link between NFATc1 and IL-10 expression in B cells and suggest NFATc1 and, in particular, its inducible short isoform, NFATc1/αA, as a potential target to treat human psoriasis.
KW  - B cells
KW  - psoriasis
KW  - interleukins
KW  - inflammation
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-173053
VL  - 7
ER  -