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  • Neural stem cells sustain natural killer cells that dictate recovery from brain inflammation.

Neural stem cells sustain natural killer cells that dictate recovery from brain inflammation.

Nature neuroscience (2016-01-12)
Qiang Liu, Nader Sanai, Wei-Na Jin, Antonio La Cava, Luc Van Kaer, Fu-Dong Shi
ABSTRACT

Recovery from organ-specific autoimmune diseases largely relies on the mobilization of endogenous repair mechanisms and local factors that control them. Natural killer (NK) cells are swiftly mobilized to organs targeted by autoimmunity and typically undergo numerical contraction when inflammation wanes. We report the unexpected finding that NK cells are retained in the brain subventricular zone (SVZ) during the chronic phase of multiple sclerosis in humans and its animal model in mice. These NK cells were found preferentially in close proximity to SVZ neural stem cells (NSCs) that produce interleukin-15 and sustain functionally competent NK cells. Moreover, NK cells limited the reparative capacity of NSCs following brain inflammation. These findings reveal that reciprocal interactions between NSCs and NK cells regulate neurorepair.

MATERIALS
Product Number
Brand
Product Description

Sigma-Aldrich
Anti-Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein Antibody, Chemicon®, from chicken
Sigma-Aldrich
Anti-EGFR (CT) Antibody, clone 13G8, clone 13G8, from mouse