ArticleThe Journal of experimental medicine2023
Hnf4 activates mimetic-cell enhancers to recapitulate gut and liver development within the thymus.
Article in The Journal of experimental medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Foxp1 controls Fezf2-dependent gene expression, mimetic mTEC diversity, and thymic central tolerance.Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) · 2026Article
- Runx3 instructs AireJournal of autoimmunity · 2026Article
- BART-spatial unravels biologically significant transcriptional regulators from spatial omics data.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Multimerizing transcription factors FOXP3 and AIRE as chromatin architectural regulators.Nature immunology · 2026Review
- AIRE transcriptional condensates in central tolerance: a multiscale mechanistic perspective.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Fezf2 regulates differentiation of Aire-expressing and post-Aire mimetic epithelial populations maintaining thymic homeostasis.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Article
- It's Time to Unite: Diversity and Coordination of Thymic Stromal Cells for T Cell Selection and Organ Integrity.Immunological reviews · 2025Review
- Sterile production of interferons in the thymus.Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) · 2025Review
- Deconstructing the Thymic Microenvironment Through Genesis to Senescence.Immunological reviews · 2025Review
- SciGeneX: enhancing transcriptional analysis through gene module detection in single-cell and spatial transcriptomics data.NAR genomics and bioinformatics · 2025Article
- Thymic Mimetic Cells: Evolutionarily Ancient Mirrors of the Periphery.Immunological reviews · 2025Review
- Cross-species analyses of thymic mimetic cells reveal evolutionarily ancient origins and both conserved and species-specific elements.Immunity · 2025Article
- T Cell Development: From T-Lineage Specification to Intrathymic Maturation.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2025Review
- SE-lncRNAs in Cancer: Classification, Subcellular Localisation, Function and Corresponding TFs.Journal of cellular and molecular medicine · 2024Review
- Rediscovering the human thymus through cutting-edge technologies.The Journal of experimental medicine · 2024Review
- The partitioning of TCR repertoires by thymic selection.The Journal of experimental medicine · 2024Review
- Thymic Mimetic Cells: Ontogeny as Immunology.Annual review of cell and developmental biology · 2024Review
- Aire in Autoimmunity.Annual review of immunology · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Mimetic cells are medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) that mimic extra-thymic cell types to tolerize T cells to self-antigens. Here, we dissected the biology of entero-hepato mTECs, mimetic cells expressing gut- and liver-associated transcripts. Entero-hepato mTECs conserved their thymic identity yet accessed wide swaths of enterocyte chromatin and transcriptional programs via the transcription factors Hnf4α and Hnf4γ. Deletion of Hnf4α and Hnf4γ in TECs ablated entero-hepato mTECs and downregulated numerous gut- and liver-associated transcripts, with a primary contribution from Hnf4γ. Loss of Hnf4 impaired enhancer activation and CTCF redistribution in mTECs but did not impact Polycomb-mediated repression or promoter-proximal histone marks. By single-cell RNA sequencing, Hnf4 loss produced three distinct effects on mimetic cell state, fate, and accumulation. Serendipitously, a requirement for Hnf4 in microfold mTECs was discovered, which exposed a requirement for Hnf4γ in gut microfold cells and the IgA response. Study of Hnf4 in entero-hepato mTECs thus revealed mechanisms of gene control in the thymus and periphery alike.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.