CD8+ suppressor T cells resurrected

Hum Immunol. 2008 Nov;69(11):715-20. doi: 10.1016/j.humimm.2008.07.018. Epub 2008 Sep 24.

Abstract

This review focuses on the role of antigen-specific T cells that mediate active inhibition of immune responses over the past 35 years since their initial description. The field has experienced several changes in the accepted paradigm of such suppressor/regulatory T cells, from initial indications that such cells were CD8(+), to the view that such cells did not exist, to the identification of the transcription factor Foxp3 as a key orchestrator of inhibitory function. Although most Foxp3(+) cells in a resting animal are CD4(+)CD25(+) cells, Foxp3 expression and inhibitory function can be induced by antigens in the periphery by selective cytokine conditions, particularly TGF-beta. Such induced T cells occur within both the CD4 and the CD8 T-cell lineages and appear to mediate suppression by inhibiting the costimulatory activity of antigen-presenting cells and the production of inhibitory cytokines. Recent data generated by analysis of TCR Tg T cells that do not select many Foxp3-positive cells during thymic development are reviewed, emphasizing the pattern of "linked suppression" and focus of the relative potency of different mechanisms of suppression.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antigen-Presenting Cells / immunology
  • CD4 Antigens / immunology
  • CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes
  • CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / immunology*
  • Forkhead Transcription Factors / immunology*
  • Humans
  • Immune Tolerance*
  • Interleukin-2 Receptor alpha Subunit / immunology
  • Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell / immunology
  • T-Lymphocyte Subsets / immunology*
  • Transforming Growth Factor beta / immunology*

Substances

  • CD4 Antigens
  • FOXP3 protein, human
  • Forkhead Transcription Factors
  • Interleukin-2 Receptor alpha Subunit
  • Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell
  • Transforming Growth Factor beta