Xu Lili, Kitani Atsushi, Fuss Ivan, Strober Warren
Mucosal Immunity Section, Laboratory of Host Defenses, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
J Immunol. 2007 Jun 1;178(11):6725-9. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.178.11.6725.
Recent studies have shown that TGF-beta together with IL-6 induce the differentiation of IL-17-producing T cells (Th17) T cells. We therefore examined whether CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3(+) regulatory T cells, i.e., cells previously shown to produce TGF-beta, serve as Th17 inducers. We found that upon activation purified CD25(+) T cells (or sorted GFP(+) T cells obtained from Foxp3-GFP knockin mice) produce high amounts of soluble TGF-beta and when cultured with CD4(+)CD25(-)Foxp3(-) T cells in the presence of IL-6 induce the latter to differentiate into Th17 cells. Perhaps more importantly, upon activation, CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3(+)(GFP(+)) T cells themselves differentiate into Th17 cells in the presence of IL-6 (and in the absence of exogenous TGF-beta). These results indicate that CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3(+) regulatory T cells can function as inducers of Th17 cells and can differentiate into Th17 cells. They thus have important implications to our understanding of regulatory T cell function and their possible therapeutic use.
近期研究表明，转化生长因子β（TGF-β）与白细胞介素6（IL-6）共同诱导产生白细胞介素17的T细胞（Th17细胞）分化。因此，我们研究了CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3(+)调节性T细胞，即先前显示可产生TGF-β的细胞，是否作为Th17细胞诱导剂。我们发现，纯化的CD25(+)T细胞（或从Foxp3-GFP基因敲入小鼠获得的分选GFP(+)T细胞）激活后会产生大量可溶性TGF-β，并且在IL-6存在的情况下与CD4(+)CD25(-)Foxp3(-)T细胞共培养时，会诱导后者分化为Th17细胞。也许更重要的是，激活后，CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3(+)(GFP(+))T细胞自身在IL-6存在的情况下（且无外源性TGF-β）会分化为Th17细胞。这些结果表明，CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3(+)调节性T细胞可作为Th17细胞的诱导剂，并可分化为Th17细胞。因此，它们对于我们理解调节性T细胞功能及其可能的治疗用途具有重要意义。
