Terms and conditions apply: A cytokine cocktail licenses astrocyte antigen presentation.

IFN-γ and microglial cytokines jointly license astrocytes to present antigen, enabling stimulated astrocytes to drive antigen-specific expansion of CD4+ T cells.

• Why it matters: The field has debated for decades whether astrocytes can function as fully competent antigen-presenting cells, and under what conditions.
• What they did: Fisher et al. tested astrocyte antigen presentation and found it requires combined IFN-γ and microglial cytokine signals, then measured CD4+ T cell responses.
• The result: When licensed by this cytokine cocktail, stimulated astrocytes promote antigen-specific CD4+ T cell expansion, supporting conditional astrocyte antigen presentation.

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