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Recently Discovered T Cell Subsets Cannot Keep Their Commitments

Departments of Medicine and Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Transplant Institute, Division of Immunology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts

Correspondence: Dr. Terry B. Strom, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Avenue; E/CLS; Room 608, Boston, MA 02215. E-mail: tstrom{at}bidmc.harvard.edu

After activation by antigen/MHC (signal 1) and CD28-dependent co-stimulation (signal 2), resting CD4⁺ T cells commit to one of a variety of functionally and molecularly defined phenotypes. Two long established CD4 phenotypes, Th1 and Th2 cells, have been regarded as terminally differentiated formats. Recently, two additional phenotypes, tissue-protective regulatory (Tregs) and tissue-destructive Th17 T cells, have also been discovered, and neither represents a terminally differentiated phenotype. Rather, Tregs and Th17⁺ cells respond to cues provided by the inflammatory texture in which these cells reside. We review the important scientific and therapeutic implications of these differences herein.

Copyright © 2009 by the American Society of Nephrology. Online ISSN: 1533-3450 Print ISSN: 1046-6673