Experimental Diabetes Unit, Diabetes Research Institute, Department of Immunology,Transplantation and Infectious Diseases, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Via Olgettina 60, 20132 Milan, Italy.
Front Biosci (Landmark Ed). 2014 Jun 1;19(8):1240-50. doi: 10.2741/4279.
Invariant NKT cells (iNKT) represent a unique subset of innate lymphocytes that play a dual role and exert a pro-inflammatory function and also a tolerogenic function that is crucial to maintain T cell tolerance and prevent autoimmune diseases like Multiple Sclerosis, Type 1 Diabetes, Rheumatoid Arhritis and Systemic Lupus Erithematosus (SLE). Although a large body of evidence indicated that iNKT cells are instrumental to counter-regulate T cell-mediated autoimmune diseases, there is still some controversy on whether iNKT cells can actively induce immunosuppression and directly dampen T cell autoimmunity. Moreover, the recent discovery of a distinct iNKT cell subset, the iNKT17 cells, with strong adjuvant and pro-inflammatory function raised the question on what is the role of NKT17 cells in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases. Here, we review the current knowledge on iNKT cell biology and focus our attention on the possible mechanism of action and final effect of the different iNKT cell subsets in the pathogenesis of T cell-mediated autoimmune diseases.
不变自然杀伤 T 细胞（iNKT）是一种独特的固有淋巴细胞亚群，具有双重作用，既能发挥促炎作用，也能发挥耐受原性作用，这对于维持 T 细胞耐受和预防多发性硬化症、1 型糖尿病、类风湿性关节炎和系统性红斑狼疮（SLE）等自身免疫性疾病至关重要。尽管大量证据表明 iNKT 细胞对于对抗 T 细胞介导的自身免疫性疾病具有重要作用，但关于 iNKT 细胞是否能主动诱导免疫抑制以及直接抑制 T 细胞自身免疫仍存在一些争议。此外，最近发现了一种独特的 iNKT 细胞亚群，即 iNKT17 细胞，具有很强的佐剂和促炎作用，这引发了一个问题，即 NKT17 细胞在自身免疫性疾病的发病机制中起什么作用。在这里，我们回顾了 iNKT 细胞生物学的现有知识，并重点关注不同 iNKT 细胞亚群在 T 细胞介导的自身免疫性疾病发病机制中的可能作用机制和最终效应。
