Baltimore David, Boldin Mark P, O'Connell Ryan M, Rao Dinesh S, Taganov Konstantin D
Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA.
Nat Immunol. 2008 Aug;9(8):839-45. doi: 10.1038/ni.f.209.
Decades of research went into understanding immune cell development and function without awareness that consideration of a key element, microRNA (miRNA), was lacking. The discovery of miRNAs as regulators of developmental events in model organisms suggested to many investigators that miRNA might be involved in the immune system. In the past few years, widespread examination of this possibility has produced notable results. Results have shown that miRNAs affect mammalian immune cell differentiation, the outcome of immune responses to infection and the development of diseases of immunological origin. Some miRNAs repress expression of target proteins with well established functions in hematopoiesis. Here we bring together much of this work, which has so far only scratched the surface of this very fertile field of investigation, and show how the results illuminate many historic questions about hematopoiesis and immune function.
数十年来，人们在对免疫细胞发育和功能的研究中，并未意识到缺少对一个关键要素——微小RNA（miRNA）的考量。作为模式生物发育事件调节因子的miRNA的发现，让许多研究人员认为miRNA可能参与了免疫系统。在过去几年里，对这种可能性的广泛研究已取得显著成果。结果表明，miRNA影响哺乳动物免疫细胞的分化、对感染的免疫反应结果以及免疫源性疾病的发展。一些miRNA抑制在造血过程中具有既定功能的靶蛋白的表达。在这里，我们汇总了目前为止仅触及这一极为活跃的研究领域表面的许多相关工作，并展示这些结果如何阐明了许多关于造血和免疫功能的历史问题。
