{"doi":"10.1084/jem.20240677","title":"Adipose tissue harbors pathogenic T cells in obesity that exacerbate inflammatory arthritis","abstract":"Obesity worsens inflammatory arthritis severity, even in non-load-bearing joints, but the mechanism is unknown. Here, we show that there is an immunological mechanism mediated by T cells in adipose tissue. Using an antigen-induced arthritis model with trackable, arthritis-inducing CD8+ OT-I T cells, we found that OT-I T cells home to visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and expand there in the obese high-fat diet (HFD) context. Transplant of VAT from arthritic mice increased arthritis severity in naïve recipient mice and was ameliorated by CD8 T cell depletion. Bulk RNA sequencing identified pro-inflammatory changes to OT-I T cells in VAT characterized by increased IFN α and γ signaling after HFD. Intraperitoneal injection of IFNα, but not IFNγ, expanded CD8 T cell numbers in VAT. HFD-induced expansion of VAT CD8 T cells was ameliorated with global Ifnar1 deletion, and importantly, genetic deletion of Ifnar1 in T cells decreased arthritis severity in obese mice. These results provide a mechanistic explanation of how obesity worsens autoimmunity.","journal":"The Journal of Experimental Medicine","year":2025,"id":531587,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":4,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9502,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":230136,"name":"Margaret H. Chang","orcid":"0000-0002-3545-8957","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":226235,"name":"A. Helena Jonsson","orcid":"0000-0002-9558-2474","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1360998,"name":"Erin Theisen","orcid":"0000-0003-1864-0594","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":287440,"name":"Nelson M. LaMarche","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1225132,"name":"William V. Trim","orcid":"0000-0002-5642-0608","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":85084,"name":"Lydia Lynch","orcid":"0000-0002-4273-4681","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":257820,"name":"Peter A. Nigrović","orcid":"0000-0002-2126-3702","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":76152,"name":"Michael B. Brenner","orcid":"0000-0001-6202-8445","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":238241,"name":"Heather J. Faust","orcid":"0000-0001-5305-3323","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":65,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:51:14.579161Z","pmid":"40622306","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}