Ito Tomoki, Amakawa Ryuichi, Fukuhara Shirou
First Department of Internal Medicine, Kansai Medical University, Moriguchi, Osaka, Japan.
Hum Immunol. 2002 Dec;63(12):1120-5. doi: 10.1016/s0198-8859(02)00750-4.
Natural IFN-alpha/beta producing cells (IPCs) play a central role in innate immunity against microbial infections. In primary immune responses, toll-like receptors (TLRs), as major pattern-recognition receptors, are essential for IPCs as well as other antigen presenting cell (APC) subsets to recognize microbes. IPCs unequivocally express TLR7 and TLR9, and can respond to the respective ligand to produce IFN-alpha/beta and to rapidly differentiate into dendritic cells (DCs). Thereby, IPCs can not only activate innate immune system but also provoke T cell responses. Thus, IPCs link innate and adaptive immunity through TLR system. In addition, recent work has revealed the regulatory system of DC subsets in response to microbial invasion. In this context, by the different but complementary expression profile of TLRs, IPCs together with myeloid APC subsets constitute a rational system of immune surveillance that can cover a wide variety of pathogens and enlarge immune adjuvant effects.
天然产生α/β干扰素的细胞（IPCs）在针对微生物感染的固有免疫中起核心作用。在初次免疫应答中，Toll样受体（TLRs）作为主要的模式识别受体，对于IPCs以及其他抗原呈递细胞（APC）亚群识别微生物至关重要。IPCs明确表达TLR7和TLR9，并能对相应配体作出反应以产生α/β干扰素，并迅速分化为树突状细胞（DCs）。因此，IPCs不仅可以激活固有免疫系统，还能激发T细胞反应。这样，IPCs通过TLR系统连接固有免疫和适应性免疫。此外，最近的研究揭示了DC亚群响应微生物入侵的调节系统。在此背景下，通过TLRs不同但互补的表达谱，IPCs与髓样APC亚群共同构成了一个合理的免疫监视系统，该系统可以涵盖多种病原体并增强免疫佐剂效应。
