If you follow this link, you will be able to listen to trance music, which was really popular in the 90s. Interestingly, at the same time a D. Anderson from the group of L. Galibert in Seattle and B. Wong from the group of Y. Choi in New York published papers about TRANCE the TNF related activation induced cytokine, maybe while listening to trance music. So if you are less interested in techno music and more interested in immunology you might find TRANCE a lot more fascinating than flashing lights and funny hair styles. However, if you get bad flashbacks about the 90s just by hearing the word Trance, you can also call it RANKL or CD254.
Trance has previously been mentioned in this blog, because of its interaction with OSCAR. As such it is involved in osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption. However, most research on TRANCE is done regarding its function in the immune response. As the name sort of indicates, TRANCE is a cytokine, that is involved in TNF (tumor necrosis factor) signaling. TRANCE is expressed and secreted by dendritic cells and acts as a ligand for RANK on T-cells. RANK signaling leads to activation of NFkappaB which greatly enhances T-cell maturation and survival.
References:
http://www.uniprot.org
Anderson et al. (1997) A homologue of the TNF receptor and its ligand enhance T-cell growth and dendritic-cell function. Nature;390(6656):175-9.
Wong et al. (1997) TRANCE is a novel ligand of the tumor necrosis factor receptor family that activates c-Jun N-terminal kinase in T cells. J Biol Chem. 272(40):25190-4.
Wong et al. (1997) TRANCE (tumor necrosis factor [TNF]-related activation-induced cytokine), a new TNF family member predominantly expressed in T cells, is a dendritic cell-specific survival factor. J Exp Med.186(12):2075-80.