Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Tokyo Women's Medical University, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan.
Allergol Int. 2012 Mar;61(1):27-34. doi: 10.2332/allergolint.11-RAI-0374. Epub 2012 Jan 25.
The cytokine TSLP was originally identified in a murine thymic stromal cell line as a lymphoid growth factor. After the discovery of TSLP, extensive molecular genetic analyses and gene targeting experiments have demonstrated that TSLP plays an essential role in allergic diseases. In this review, we discuss the current status of TSLP and its functional role in allergic diseases particularly by focusing on effects of TSLP on haematopoietic cells in mouse models. It is our conclusion that a number of research areas, i.e., a new source of TSLP, effects of TSLP on non-haematopoietic and haematopoietic cells, synergistic interactions of cytokines including IL-25 and IL-33 and a regulation of TSLP expression and its function, are critically needed to understand the whole picture of TSLP involvement in allergic diseases. The mouse models will thus contribute further to our understanding of TSLP involvement in allergic diseases and development of therapeutic measures for human allergic diseases.
细胞因子 TSLP 最初在小鼠胸腺基质细胞系中被鉴定为一种淋巴生长因子。TSLP 发现后，广泛的分子遗传学分析和基因靶向实验表明，TSLP 在过敏性疾病中发挥着重要作用。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了 TSLP 的现状及其在过敏性疾病中的功能作用，特别是通过关注 TSLP 在小鼠模型中对造血细胞的影响。我们的结论是，有许多研究领域，如 TSLP 的新来源、TSLP 对非造血细胞和造血细胞的影响、包括 IL-25 和 IL-33 在内的细胞因子的协同相互作用以及 TSLP 表达及其功能的调节，对于理解 TSLP 在过敏性疾病中的整体作用至关重要。因此，这些小鼠模型将有助于我们进一步了解 TSLP 在过敏性疾病中的作用以及开发人类过敏性疾病的治疗措施。
