Lazarevic Vanja, Zullo Alfred J, Schweitzer Michelle N, Staton Tracy L, Gallo Elena M, Crabtree Gerald R, Glimcher Laurie H
Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Nat Immunol. 2009 Mar;10(3):306-13. doi: 10.1038/ni.1696. Epub 2009 Jan 25.
The influence of signals transmitted by the phosphatase calcineurin and the transcription factor NFAT on the development and function of natural killer T (NKT) cells is unclear. In this report, we demonstrate that the transcription factor early growth response 2 (Egr2), a target gene of NFAT, was specifically required for the ontogeny of NKT cells but not that of conventional CD4(+) or CD8(+) T cells. NKT cells developed normally in the absence of Egr1 or Egr3, which suggests that Egr2 is a specific regulator of NKT cell differentiation. We found that Egr2 was important in the selection, survival and maturation of NKT cells. Our findings emphasize the importance of the calcineurin-NFAT-Egr2 pathway in the development of the NKT lymphocyte lineage.
磷酸酶钙调神经磷酸酶和转录因子NFAT所传递的信号对自然杀伤T(NKT)细胞发育及功能的影响尚不清楚。在本报告中,我们证明,作为NFAT的一个靶基因,转录因子早期生长反应2(Egr2)是NKT细胞个体发生所特需的,但对于传统CD4(+)或CD8(+) T细胞则并非如此。在缺乏Egr1或Egr3的情况下,NKT细胞仍能正常发育,这表明Egr2是NKT细胞分化的特异性调节因子。我们发现,Egr2在NKT细胞的选择、存活及成熟过程中具有重要作用。我们的研究结果强调了钙调神经磷酸酶-NFAT-Egr2信号通路在NKT淋巴细胞谱系发育中的重要性。