Over the last ten years, Oosterhof and Todorov's valence-dominance model has emerged as the most prominent account of how people evaluate faces on social dimensions. In this model, two dimensions (valence and dominance) underpin social judgments of faces. Because this model has primarily been developed and tested in Western regions, it is unclear whether these findings apply to other regions. We addressed this question by replicating Oosterhof and Todorov's methodology across 11 world regions, 41 countries, and 11,570 participants. When we used Oosterhof and Todorov's original analysis strategy, the valence-dominance model generalized across regions. When we used an alternative methodology to allow for correlated dimensions we observed much less generalization. Collectively, these results suggest that, while the valence-dominance model generalizes very well across regions when dimensions are forced to be orthogonal, regional differences are revealed when we use different extraction methods, correlate and rotate the dimension reduction solution.

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Regulatory T cells (Tregs) suppress the innate inflammation associated with kidney ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI), but the mechanism is not well understood. Tregs express CD73, the final enzyme involved in the production of extracellular adenosine, and activation of the adenosine 2A receptor (A 2A R) on immune cells suppresses inflammation and preserves kidney function after IRI. We hypothesized that Treggenerated adenosine is required to block innate immune responses in kidney IRI and that the Treggenerated adenosine would signal through A 2A Rs on inflammatory cells and, in an autocrine manner, on Tregs themselves. We found that adoptively transferred wild-type Tregs protected wild-type mice from kidney IRI, but the absence of adenosine generation (CD73-deficient Tregs) or adenosine responsiveness (A 2A R-deficient Tregs) led to inhibition of Treg function. Pharmacologic stimulation of A 2A R before adoptive transfer augmented the ability of wild-type and CD73-deficient Tregs to suppress kidney IRI. Microarray analysis and flow cytometry revealed that A 2A R activation enhanced surface PD-1 expression on Tregs in the absence of any other activation signal. Treatment of Tregs with a PD-1 blocking antibody before adoptive transfer reversed their protective effects, even if pretreated with an A 2A R agonist. Taken together, these results demonstrate that the simultaneous ability to generate and respond to adenosine is required for Tregs to suppress innate immune responses in IRI through a PD-1-dependent mechanism.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common problem in hospitalized patients which enhances morbidity and mortality and promotes the development of chronic and end stage renal disease. Ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI) is one of the major causes of AKI and is characterized by uncontrolled renal inflammation and tubular epithelial cell death. Our recent studies demonstrated that regulatory T cells (Tregs) protect the kidney from IR-induced inflammation and injury. Blockade of programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) on the surface of Tregs, prior to adoptive transfer, negates their ability to protect against ischemic kidney injury. The current study was designed to investigate the role of the known PD-1 ligands, PD-L1 and PD-L2 in kidney IRI. Administration of PD-L1 or PD-L2 blocking antibodies prior to mild or moderate kidney IRI significantly exacerbated the loss of renal function, renal inflammation and acute tubular necrosis (ATN) compared to mice receiving isotype control antibodies. Interestingly, blockade of both PD-1 ligands resulted in worse injury, dysfunction and inflammation than blocking either ligand alone. Genetic deficiency of either PD-1 ligand also exacerbated kidney dysfunction and ATN after sub-threshold ischemia. Bone marrow chimeric studies revealed that PD-L1 expressed on non-bone marrow derived cells is critical for this resistance to IRI. Finally, blockade of either PD-1 ligand negated the protective ability of adoptively-transferred Tregs in IRI. These findings suggest that PD-L1 and PD-L2 are non-redundant aspects of the natural protective response to ischemic injury and may be novel therapeutic targets for AKI.