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Updated: Mar 29, 2026

A Guide to Production, Crystallization, and Structure Determination of Human IKK1/α
Published on: November 2, 2018
The NFκB-inducing kinase is essential for the developmental programming of skin-resident and IL-17-producing γδ T
Florian Mair1, Stefanie Joller1, Romy Hoeppli1
1Institute of Experimental Immunology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Abstract:
γδ T cells contribute to first line immune defense, particularly through their ability for rapid production of proinflammatory cytokines. The cytokine profile of γδ T cells is hard-wired already during thymic development. Yet, the molecular pathways underlying this phenomenon are incompletely understood. Here we show that signaling via the NFκB-inducing kinase (NIK) is essential for the formation of a fully functional γδ T cell compartment. In the absence of NIK, development of Vγ5(+) dendritic epidermal T cells (DETCs) was halted in the embryonic thymus, and impaired NIK function caused a selective loss of IL-17 expression by γδ T cells. Using a novel conditional mutant of NIK, we could show in vivo that NIK signaling in thymic epithelial cells is essential for the thymic hardwiring of γδ T cell cytokine production.
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