Abstract
B lymphocyte maturation-induced protein-1 (Blimp1) is a transcrip-tional repressor expressed in diverse cell types. In the adaptive immune system, Blimp1 is expressed in lymphocytes that have undergone effector differentiation. Blimp1 is a master regulator of plasma cell differentiation and plays important roles in controlling T cell homeostasis and effector differentiation. Blimp1 can be induced by a variety of cytokines including IL-2, IL-4, IL-12, and IL-21 in addition to TCR and co-stimulatory signals. Blimp1-deficient mice develop spontaneous inflammatory disease mediated by infiltration of activated T cells into tissues. During immune responses Blimp1 is required for the differentiation of plasma cells as well as short-lived CD8+ cytotoxic T cells. Mounting evidence suggests that Blimp1 plays a common role in the terminal differentiation of multiple cell subsets.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by grants and fellowships from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (GTB, SLN, AK), the Sylvia and Charles Viertel Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (GTB), the Pfizer Australia Research Fellowship (SLN), the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and the Australian Research Council (AK).
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Xin, A., Nutt, S.L., Belz, G.T., Kallies, A. (2011). Blimp1: Driving Terminal Differentiation to a T. In: Pulendran, B., Katsikis, P., Schoenberger, S. (eds) Crossroads between Innate and Adaptive Immunity III. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 780. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5632-3_8
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