Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a debilitating autoimmune disease that preferentially afflicts women. The molecular origins of this female bias are unclear. A new study of plasmacytoid dendritic cells from SSc patients by Du et al. suggests the X chromosome may play a key role.

Sparano et al. show that tissue-resident NK cells produce TGF-β1 themselves to establish and maintain residency in glandular tissues. In these environments, TGF-β1, IL-15, and other factors collaboratively induce a Hobit-dependent cytotoxicity program. In the salivary glands, trNK cells limit murine cytomegalovirus persistence.

In this issue, Hosono and co-workers characterize a putative self-glycolipid that engages the iNKT cell TCR when bound to CD1d. The expression and distribution of this compound help to explain some of the unusual properties of invariant NKT cells.