AIRE and infection: Interestingly, when Aire−/− INS2 Tg mice, in which the transgene expression is lost in the thymus (Fig. 1b), are infected with LCMV-OVA, we still observe a significant reduction in the proportion of OVA-specific CD8+ T cells at day 8 post-infection, suggesting that Aire-independent peripheral expression of OVA is sufficient to dampen the OVA-specific effector CD8+ T cells response (Fig. 6i).