• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.670-675
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• 2010

Autoimmune regulator gene (Aire) is expressed in the thymus and controls the expression of peripheral self-antigens, known as promiscuous genes. Aire and promiscuous genes are involved in T cell tolerance and autoimmunity in the thymus. Here, we identified Aire-expressing fibroblastic reticular cell (FRC), which was derived from mouse lymph node and also expressed in insulin promiscuous antigen. The expression of insulin was increased in cultured FRC over-expressed with Aire. These data suggest that Aire regulates promiscuous gene expression in FRC, and that this function might be under peripheral selection control.