Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, United States.
Front Immunol. 2018 Apr 9;9:731. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.00731. eCollection 2018.
Epithelial tissues line the body providing a protective barrier from the external environment. Maintenance of these epithelial barrier tissues critically relies on the presence of a functional resident T cell population. In some tissues, the resident T cell population is exclusively comprised of γδ T cells, while in others γδ T cells are found together with αβ T cells and other lymphocyte populations. Epithelial-resident γδ T cells function not only in the maintenance of the epithelium, but are also central to the repair process following damage from environmental and pathogenic insults. Key to their function is the crosstalk between γδ T cells and neighboring epithelial cells. This crosstalk relies on multiple receptor-ligand interactions through both the T cell receptor and accessory molecules leading to temporal and spatial regulation of cytokine, chemokine, growth factor, and extracellular matrix protein production. As antigens that activate epithelial γδ T cells are largely unknown and many classical costimulatory molecules and coreceptors are not used by these cells, efforts have focused on identification of novel coreceptors and ligands that mediate pivotal interactions between γδ T cells and their neighbors. In this review, we discuss recent advances in the understanding of functions for these coreceptors and their ligands in epithelial maintenance and repair processes.
上皮组织排列在身体表面,为人体提供了一道抵御外界环境侵害的屏障。这些上皮屏障组织的维持,关键依赖于功能性常驻 T 细胞群体的存在。在某些组织中,常驻 T 细胞群体完全由 γδ T 细胞组成,而在其他组织中,γδ T 细胞与 αβ T 细胞和其他淋巴细胞群体共同存在。上皮组织中驻留的 γδ T 细胞不仅在维持上皮组织方面发挥作用,而且在应对环境和病原体损伤后的修复过程中也起着核心作用。其功能的关键是 γδ T 细胞与邻近上皮细胞之间的串扰。这种串扰依赖于 T 细胞受体和辅助分子的多种受体-配体相互作用,导致细胞因子、趋化因子、生长因子和细胞外基质蛋白产生的时空调节。由于激活上皮 γδ T 细胞的抗原在很大程度上是未知的,并且这些细胞不使用许多经典的共刺激分子和共受体,因此人们致力于鉴定介导 γδ T 细胞与其相邻细胞之间关键相互作用的新型共受体和配体。在这篇综述中,我们讨论了对这些共受体及其配体在维持和修复上皮组织过程中的功能的最新理解。