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[Display omitted] The invariant TCR ζ/CD247 homodimer is crucial for TCR/CD3 expression and signaling through its 3 immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motifs (ITAMs). Homozygous null mutations in CD247 lead to immunodeficiency, while carriers exhibit 50% reduced surface CD3. It is unclear whether carriers of other CD247 variants show dominant-negative effects. We sought to analyze and model the potential impact on T-cell receptor (TCR) expression and function of heterozygous nonsense CD247 mutations found in patients with signs of immunodeficiency or autoimmunity. Jurkat T cells, either wild-type (WT) or CRISPR/Cas9-edited CD247-deficient (ZKO), were lentivirally transduced with WT CD247 or mutations ablating 1 (Q142X), 2 (Q101X), or 3 (Q70X) ITAMs. Three patients from unrelated families were studied. Two heterozygous nonsense CD247 mutations were identified (p.Y152X and p.Q101X), which affected ITAM-3 and ITAM-2 and ITAM-3, respectively. Both mutations were associated with low surface CD3 expression and normal intracellular CD247 levels using a transmembrane-specific antibody, but very low intracellular CD247 levels using an ITAM-3–specific one, suggesting the presence of truncated variants in T cells. Transduction of the mutations lacking 1, 2, or 3 ITAMs into ZKO cells could not restore normal surface CD3 expression (only 60%, 22%, and 10%, respectively), whereas in WT cells, normal surface CD3 expression was reduced (to 39%, 19%, and 9% of normal levels), and both effects were dependent on ITAM number. All 6 transfectants showed reduced CD69 induction (25% to 50%), indicating that they were unable to signal downstream properly, neither isolated nor associated with WT CD247. Our results suggest that CD247 variants lacking ITAMs due to nonsense, but not null, mutations are defective for normal TCR assembly and exert a dominant-negative effect on TCR expression and signaling in vitro. This, in turn, may correlate with clinical features in vivo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study provides information on the emotional experience of people with intellectual disability. To evaluate this emotional experience, we have used the International Affective Pictures System (IAPS). The most important result from this study is that the emotional reaction of people with intellectual disability to affective stimuli is very similar to that of the control groups. The way in which people with intellectual disability express basic affect to emotional stimuli in terms of happy-sad and calm-nervous is very similar to that of the general population. However, there are also some differences in how basic affect is expressed in the affective dimensions that might be relevant to our understanding of the emotional life of people with intellectual disability.

We have recently described several monoclonal antibodies (mAb) that recognize a heterodimeric structure (gp33/27,000 MW) expressed on the surface of human peripheral blood T lymphocytes upon activation with different mitogenic stimuli. Such mAb, when used in combination with submitogenic doses of phorbol ester, were capable of triggering T-cell proliferation. The antigen has been designated as activation inducer molecule (AIM). In the present study we have investigated the expression of the AIM in different lymphoid and non-lymphoid tissues. In addition, we have analysed the ability of lymphocyte subsets derived from thymus and tonsil to proliferate in response to anti-AIM mAb. The presence of AIM on subpopulations of lymphoid cells from thymus, tonsil, lymph node and spleen has been demonstrated by immunoprecipitation, flow cytometry and immunoperoxidase staining of tissue sections. By contrast, non-lymphoid cells from tissues such as brain, kidney, liver, lung or skin did not react with anti-AIM mAb. In thymus, the AIM expression was restricted to a subset of CD3+ medullary thymocytes, whereas CD1+ CD3- cortical thymocytes did not express this antigen. Nevertheless, the majority of both purified CD1- and CD3- thymocytes expressed AIM antigen after treatment with PMA. In tonsil and lymph node, a strong staining of a subset of CD3+ T lymphocytes located in the germinal centre was observed by immunohistochemical labelling with anti-AIM mAb. Certain T cells from the paracortical zone and CD19+ B lymphocytes from mantle region were also reactive. Both purified tonsillar T and B lymphocytes strongly expressed AIM after activation with PMA. The anti-AIM mAb was able to induce a strong proliferative response on purified CD1- thymocytes as well as on both purified tonsillar T and B lymphocytes in the presence of submitogenic doses of PMA. By contrast, no proliferative response was induced through the AIM in the CD3- immature thymocyte subset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estradiol-based contraceptives and hormonal replacement therapy predispose women to Candida albicans infections. Moreover, during the ovulatory phase (high estradiol), neutrophil numbers decrease in the vaginal lumen and increase during the luteal phase (high progesterone). Vaginal secretions contain chemokines that drive neutrophil migration into the lumen. However, their expression during the ovarian cycle or in response to hormonal treatments are controversial and their role in vaginal defense remains unknown.To investigate the transepithelial migration of neutrophils, we used adoptive transfer of Cxcr2(-/-) neutrophils and chemokine immunofluorescence quantitative analysis in response to C. albicans vaginal infection in the presence of hormones.Our data show that the Cxcl1/Cxcr2 axis drives neutrophil transepithelial migration into the vagina. Progesterone promotes the Cxcl1 gradient to favor neutrophil migration. Estradiol disrupts the Cxcl1 gradient and favors neutrophil arrest in the vaginal stroma; as a result, the vagina becomes more vulnerable to pathogens., (© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, e-mail journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Chemokines are known to induce leukocyte adhesion to the endothelium and emigration into tissues. Here, Miguel Angel del Pozo and colleagues discuss how these molecules also appear to regulate the redistribution of cell adhesion receptors. Recruitment of adhesion molecules towards a cellular uropod in response to chemokines may represent a novel cooperative mechanism in the recruitment of leukocytes to sites of inflammation.