Department of Immunology, Lerner Research Institute, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA.
Virulence. 2010 Sep-Oct;1(5):399-401. doi: 10.4161/viru.1.5.12550.
Despite that basophils represent less than 0.5% of circulating leukocytes, recent studies have begun to unveil their potent immunoregulatory functions, i.e., induction of Th2 immunity. It is believed that basophils are capable of doing so primarily by secreting key Th2-inducing cytokines, namely IL-4 and Thymic Stromal Lymphopoietin (TSLP), and by functioning as professional antigen presenting cells. However, we have recently demonstrated that Th2 immunity can develop in the absence of basophils or IL-4 during helminth infection. In this review, how basophils may (and may not) contribute to the development of Th2 immunity in vivo is discussed.
尽管嗜碱性粒细胞在循环白细胞中所占比例不到 0.5%,但最近的研究开始揭示其强大的免疫调节功能,即诱导 Th2 免疫。人们认为嗜碱性粒细胞主要通过分泌关键的 Th2 诱导细胞因子,即白细胞介素 4 和胸腺基质淋巴细胞生成素 (TSLP),并作为专业的抗原提呈细胞来实现这一点。然而,我们最近证明,在寄生虫感染期间,在没有嗜碱性粒细胞或白细胞介素 4 的情况下也可以发展 Th2 免疫。在这篇综述中,讨论了嗜碱性粒细胞在体内可能(和不可能)促进 Th2 免疫的发展。