Serre Karine, Silva-Santos Bruno
Faculdade de Medicina, Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Universidade de Lisboa , Lisbon , Portugal.
Front Immunol. 2013 Dec 5;4:431. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2013.00431.
γδ T cells are unconventional innate-like lymphocytes that actively participate in protective immunity against tumors and infectious organisms including bacteria, viruses, and parasites. However, γδ T cells are also involved in the development of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. γδ T cells are functionally characterized by very rapid production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, while also impacting on (slower but long-lasting) adaptive immune responses. This makes it crucial to understand the molecular mechanisms that regulate γδ T cell effector functions. Although they share many similarities with αβ T cells, our knowledge of the molecular pathways that control effector functions in γδ T cells still lags significantly behind. In this review, we focus on the segregation of interferon-γ versus interleukin-17 production in murine thymic-derived γδ T cell subsets defined by CD27 and CCR6 expression levels. We summarize the most recent studies that disclose the specific epigenetic and transcriptional mechanisms that govern the stability or plasticity of discrete pro-inflammatory γδ T cell subsets, whose manipulation may be valuable for regulating (auto)immune responses.
γδ T细胞是一类非常规的固有样淋巴细胞，积极参与针对肿瘤以及包括细菌、病毒和寄生虫在内的感染性生物体的保护性免疫。然而，γδ T细胞也参与炎症性疾病和自身免疫性疾病的发生发展。γδ T细胞的功能特征是能非常快速地产生促炎细胞因子，同时也影响（较慢但持久的）适应性免疫反应。这使得了解调节γδ T细胞效应功能的分子机制至关重要。尽管它们与αβ T细胞有许多相似之处，但我们对控制γδ T细胞效应功能的分子途径的了解仍明显滞后。在本综述中，我们重点关注由CD27和CCR6表达水平定义的小鼠胸腺来源的γδ T细胞亚群中γ干扰素与白细胞介素-17产生的分离。我们总结了最新研究，这些研究揭示了控制离散促炎γδ T细胞亚群稳定性或可塑性的特定表观遗传和转录机制，对其进行调控可能对调节（自身）免疫反应具有重要价值。
