CD271 is common stem cell marker for the epidermis and dermis. We assessed a kinetic movement of epidermal and dermal CD271⁺ cells in the wound healing process to elucidate the possible involvement with chronic skin ulcers. Epidermal CD271⁺ cells were proliferated and migrated from 3 days after wounding. Purified epidermal CD271⁺ cells expressed higher TGFβ2 and VEGFα transcripts than CD271⁻ cells. Delayed wound healing was observed in the aged mice compared with young mice. During the wound healing process, the peak of dermal CD271⁺ cell accumulation was delayed in aged mice compared with young mice. The expression levels of collagen-1, -3, -5, F4-80, EGF, FGF2, TGFβ1, and IL-1α were significantly increased in young mice compared with aged mice. Furthermore, purified dermal CD271⁺ cells expressed higher FGF2, EGF, PDGFB, and TGFβ1 gene transcripts than CD271⁻ cells. These results suggested that epidermal and dermal CD271⁺ cells were closely associated with wound healing process by producing various growth factors. Epidermal and dermal CD271⁺ cells in chronic skin ulcer patients were significantly reduced compared with healthy controls. Thus, both epidermal and dermal stem cells can play an important role in wound healing process.

  The importance of cellular metabolism has long been known as Warburg effect; cancer cells are characterized by mitochondrial defect that shifts towards aerobic glycolysis. Recently, many reports have revealed that immune metabolism is a key factor for controlling immune cell proliferation and differentiation. Resting lymphocytes generate energy through oxidative phosphorylation and fatty acid oxidation, whereas activated lymphocytes rapidly shift to glycolysis. Especially in T cells, more precise mechanism of regulating metabolism have been clarified on differentiation from naïve T cells to effector T cells. Similar studies have also been carried out to characterize B cell and myeloid cell metabolism. Metabolic regulation is considered to be particularly important in autoimmune diseases. Metabolic changes in these diseases might not only reflect the chronic activated immune-status but also associated with their pathogenesis. Here, we review what is known on the altered metabolism in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), mainly focusing on T cells and B cells, and how they contribute to SLE pathogenesis. We also discuss how immune metabolic defects can become targets of future SLE therapy.

Background: Familial mediterranean fever (FMF) is a single inherited autoinflammatory disease characterized by periodic fever with relatively short duration of 1 to 3 days and sterile serositis. Although the prevalence rate is highest in the Mediterranean coastal area, a large number of cases have been reported recently by genetic analysis by identification of MEFV (Mediterranean fever) which is responsible gene in Japan too. In outpatient department of rheumatology, diagnosis and treatment of FMF is performed in cases where fever and abdominal pain attack are repeated for a short period of time. Patients and Methods: We examined cases in which symptoms considered periodic seizures were repeated, excluding autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases, and malignant tumors. In both cases, genetic analysis is performed as auxiliary diagnosis. Results: Seven cases satisfied the Tel-Hashomer criteria criteria and MEFV gene mutation was detected. Everyone was a female, and half had seizure symptoms at menstruation. Even though there is a difference in the amount of colchicine to be used, either one is effective. Conclusion: In cases of periodic symptoms or cases called periodic fever, exclusion diagnosis is carried out, there is a need to suspect FMF, determine the effect of colchicine, and perform genetic analysis.

Objective: To investigate the effects and mechanisms of transgenic rice seeds expressing the altered peptide ligand (APL) of human glucose-6-phosphate-isomerase (hGPI_325-339) in mice model of GPI induced arthritis (GIA). Methods: We generated transgenic rice expressing APL12 which was analog peptide of hGPI_325-339. The transgenic rice seeds were orally administered prophylactically before the induction of GIA. The severity of arthritis and titers of serum anti-GPI antibodies were evaluated. We examined IL-17 production from splenocytes and inguinal lymph node (iLN) and mesenteric lymph nodes (mLN) cells and analyzed the expression levels of functional molecules from splenocytes and iLN cells. Results: Prophylactic treatment of GIA mice with APL12 transgenic rice seeds (APL12-TG) significantly improved the severity of arthritis, histopathological arthritis scores, and decreased titers of serum anti-GPI antibodies, BAFF mRNA in iLN cells, IL-17 production in splenocytes and iLN cells compared with non-transgenic rice-treated mice. APL12-TG-treated GIA mice showed upregulation of Foxp3 and GITR protein in CD4⁺CD25⁺ cells in the spleen. Conclusion: APL12-TG improved the severity of GIA through a decrease in production of IL-17 and anti-GPI antibodies via upregulation of Foxp3 and GITR expression on regulatory T cells in spleen.

  Genes encoding the human leukocyte antigens (HLA) are associated with diverse immunological disorders, including autoimmune diseases and infections. Recently, significant progresses have been made in the HLA typing technologies through the use of next generation sequencers. The reliable platforms for the SNP-based imputation of HLA genotypes have also been established. These technical advancements should enable further identification of HLA associations with diseases. One of the remaining questions is the mechanism through which HLA confer disease susceptibility. As a first step toward comprehensive understanding of functional variations among HLA allele products, we established a protocol to analyze the HLA-binding peptides through quantification of cell-surface HLA expression in an engineered cell line. In this article, we summarize the overview of the cell-surface HLA expression assay, which we plan to use for screening and collection of HLA-peptide interaction profiles for large sets of HLA alleles and peptides.

  Cancer-stem cells (or cancer-stem like cells, CSC) play an indispensable role in tumor initiation or tumor development in vivo. However, CSCs are resistant to conventional therapies including chemo/radiotherapy and a certain molecularly-targeted therapy, thereby are responsible for tumor relapse or metastasis in clinical settings. In this review, we focus on cytotoxic T-cell mediated immune responses against CSCs and discuss a challenge of targeting CSCs as well as the development of CSC-based cancer immunotherapy, which is an emerging and promising strategy toward a complete cure of quite a few types of cancers.

  The pluripotent stem cells have a self-renewal ability and can be differentiated into theoretically all of cell types. The induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells overcame the ethical problems of the human embryonic stem (ES) cell, and enable pathologic analysis of intractable diseases and drug discovery. The in vitro disease model using disease-specific iPS cells enables repeated analyses of human cells without influence of environment factors. Even though autoimmune diseases are polygenic diseases, autoimmune disease-specific iPS cells are thought to be a promising tool for analyzing the pathogenesis of the diseases and drug discovery in future.

  Efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors such as PD-1 antibody for colorectal cancer remains to be proved except in microsatellite-instability-high (MSI-H) cases. While the objective response rate of MSI-H cases was 40%, that of microsatellite-stable (MSS) cases was 0%, showing that response rate to immune checkpoint inhibitors varies even among the microsatellite status. Some possible mechanisms that confer each patient variation in the response to immunotherapy should be considered. We focused on the combination of inter-patient heterogeneity and intra-tumor heterogeneity as a determining factor of immune reaction. An example of intra-tumor heterogeneity is the low expression of tumor antigen by CD271⁺ cells in melanoma. It is not surprising that similar mechanism exists in CRC. Other related intra-tumor heterogeneity includes EMT and autophagy, both molecular mechanisms that are thought to promote immune-evading phenotype. Besides the microsatellite status, inter-patient heterogeneity in response to tumor immunity includes hypermutator phenotype, which is driven by POLE mutation, intrinsic cytokine production, and microbiota in the gut.

  The number of patients with nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) disease is reportedly increasing both in Japan and worldwide. NTM diseases are classified into disseminated and pulmonary diseases based on their clinical characteristics. These two types of NTM diseases are thought to be controlled by different mechanisms. Disseminated NTM disease is caused by a defect in signal transduction of Th1 cellular immune responses, including the IFN-γ/IL-12 axis. The precise molecular mechanisms of disseminated NTM disease are understood in detail. Pulmonary NTM disease progression is associated with both bacterial factors as well as host factors. Furthermore, it is suggested that some susceptibility genes for NTM diseases may also exist. A previous study on the susceptibility genes for pulmonary NTM disease was performed using Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) analysis and microsatellite marker analysis. However, a number of challenges remain in terms of the reproducibility. The emergence of next generation sequencing enables genome-wide analysis, and further studies on the susceptibility genes for pulmonary NTM disease are expected in the future.

  Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) and adoptive cell therapies (ACT) with antigen-receptor gene-engineered T cells have been shown to be successful for a limited number of patients with solid tumors. Responders to ICB therapy typically have T cell-inflamed tumors. Thus, it is important to develop strategies that convert non-T cell-inflamed tumors to T cell-inflamed tumors. Although chimeric antigen receptor transduced T (CAR-T) cell therapy targeting hematological malignancies demonstrated durable clinical responses, the success of gene-engineered T cell therapies in solid tumors is hampered by a lack of unique antigens, antigen loss in cancer cells, and the immune-suppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) of solid tumors. However, gene-engineered T cells possess strong killing activity and cytokine production capacity, which can induce antigen spreading and modulate the TME of non-T cell-inflamed tumors seen in non-responders to ICB therapy. Immune responses against cancer are highly heterogeneous, not only between tumor types, but also within a patient or between different patients with the same type of cancer, indicating that personalized immunotherapy should be employed, based on the immune status of the individual patient. Here, we offer our perspective for personalized combination immunotherapy for solid tumors based on ACT and ICB therapies.

  When patients with autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), are treated with potent immunosuppressive therapy, the risk of opportunistic diseases inevitably increases. If patients have the misfortune to suffer from both opportunistic and active autoimmune diseases, correct diagnosis could sometimes be difficult since both diseases have inflammatory nature. The choice of treatment is another challenge in that aggressive immunosuppressive therapy can fuel the opportunistic infection. Here we report a case of RA patient with new onset rheumatoid vasculitis that was diagnosed in the process of treatment of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia.