Tan Jian-Xin, Wang Ya-Jun, Zhu Xi-Ke
Research Center, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang 110004, China.
Sheng Li Xue Bao. 2016 Feb 25;68(1):75-86.
The thymus is a vital primary lymphoid organ that provides unique microenvironments for the proliferation, differentiation, and maturation of T cells. With advancing age, however, the thymus gradually undergoes age-related involution and reduction in immune function, which are characterized by decreases in tissue size, cellularity, and naïve T cell output. This dynamic process leads to the reduced efficacy of the immune system with age and contributes to the increased susceptibility to infection, autoimmune disease, and cancer. In addition, bone marrow transplantation, radio-chemotherapy and virus infection also impair the thymus and give rise to the decline in immune function. Therefore, understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in age-related thymic involution and development of novel therapeutic strategies for thymic rejuvenation have gained considerable interests in recent years. This review emphasizes thymic microenvironments and thymocyte-stromal cell interactions and summarizes our current knowledge about thymic rejuvenation in terms of sex steroid, cytokines, growth factors, hormones, transcription factors, cell graft, and microRNAs. At the end of each discussion, we also highlight unanswered issues and describe possible future research directions.
胸腺是一个重要的初级淋巴器官,为T细胞的增殖、分化和成熟提供独特的微环境。然而,随着年龄的增长,胸腺会逐渐经历与年龄相关的退化,免疫功能下降,其特征是组织大小、细胞数量和初始T细胞输出减少。这一动态过程导致免疫系统随着年龄增长而功效降低,并导致对感染、自身免疫性疾病和癌症的易感性增加。此外,骨髓移植、放化疗和病毒感染也会损害胸腺,导致免疫功能下降。因此,近年来,了解与年龄相关的胸腺退化所涉及的分子机制以及开发新的胸腺 rejuvenation治疗策略引起了人们的极大兴趣。本综述强调胸腺微环境和胸腺细胞-基质细胞相互作用,并从性类固醇、细胞因子、生长因子、激素、转录因子、细胞移植和微小RNA等方面总结了我们目前关于胸腺rejuvenation的知识。在每次讨论结束时,我们还强调了未解决的问题,并描述了未来可能的研究方向。