I am more than happy that our study on MAIT cells in MASLD and their role in liver cancer immunity is now out in Journal of Hepatology!! 🤩 ⬇️ Here's a thread about: 🧬 Immunometabolic dysfunction of MAIT cells in MASLD: A novel barrier to liver cancer immunity 🧬

Thank you @EKFStiftung for highlighting our recent publication on how MASLD-associated PUFAS impair MAIT cell anti-tumour function as paper of the month 🙏🏻🤩

@EASLnews @JHepatology @CD1MR1 @GMWiedemann

9/ Read more: https://t.co/mViNNotMX0 @EASLnews @JHepatology @CD1MR1 #Immunometabolism #MAITcells #LiverImmunology #Ferroptosis #MASLD #HCC #LipidPeroxidation #TcellDysfunction #CancerImmunotherapy #TumorMicroenvironment #FattyLiver

8/ 🙏 Grateful to an outstanding team of collaborators and co-authors for their input to our project. @JunikaPohl @PhilippaMeiser @CancerInflam @JBoettcherLab @KnolleLab and all others that are not on social media

7/ 🏥 Clinical implications: The PUFA–lipid peroxide axis we have identified represents a targetable metabolic checkpoint to enhance immunotherapy in HCC.

6/ 💡 Conclusion: MASLD generates a lipid-driven immunosuppressive microenvironment by inducing metabolic exhaustion-mediated dysfunction and ferroptosis in MAIT cells - an abundant intrahepatic T cell subset with anti-tumour properties.

5/ • Interfering with lipid peroxide formation reverses MAIT dysfunction and restores anti-cancer activity. • A PUFA-MAIT cell gene signature correlates with poor overall survival of patients with HCC.

4/ • PUFAs induce intracellular lipid peroxidation, driving metabolic exhaustion – i.e. mitochondrial and glycolytic dysfunction – and triggering ferroptosis.

3/ 🔬Core findings: • In MASLD, MAIT cells exhibit profound functional exhaustion, including impaired cytokine production and anti-tumour activity. • Mechanistically, PUFAs accumulate selectively in MAIT cells, not in conventional CD8⁺ or NK cells.

2/ In our study, we identify a previously unrecognised immunometabolic axis that links polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) to MAIT cell dysfunction in patients with MASLD.

1/ Our latest findings provide a possible mechanism on why patients with MASLD (metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease) are more vulnerable to liver cancer.

Watching this space, we’re moving! ⬇️ https://t.co/yvXXKACmak

#MAITcells #tcell #CARTcells #liver #liverimmunology #CancerResearch #Immunology #Immunotherapy #immunometabolism

….contact me via dm with your CV, a motivation letter and 2 references if you are interested in joining the team! 📣

If you want to know 🔬how immune cell function is regulated by tissue microenvironments in health and disease 👩‍🔬how MAIT cell functionality is regulated by immune cell metabolism 🧪how to engineer MAIT cells to direct them against solid cancers

My lab is focused on understanding mechanisms of immune cell dysfunction in cancer development, progression and resistance to immunotherapy with the main aim to advance therapies against hepatobiliary cancers and related hepatological conditions. ⬇️

📣 !! JOB ALERT for PhD students !! My lab is moving to the M3 Research Center at the University of Tübingen and is looking for PhD students who are enthusiastic about translational research. If you are, read on below ⬇️

Don’t miss @bjorkstrom_lab talking about lymphocyte dynamics in the liver at TUM - see tweet below for detailed information 📣 #liver #liverimmunology

🌟 joint christmas party with @gmwiedemann lab and Middelhoff lab was a success - looking forward to keeping the good lab spirit up in 2025 🌟🎄