1. Foxp3+ Regulatory T Cells: Selfishness under Scrutiny
- Author
-
Geoffrey L. Stephens and Ethan M. Shevach
- Subjects
Genetics ,Scrutiny ,Lineage (genetic) ,media_common.quotation_subject ,T cell ,Immunology ,FOXP3 ,Forkhead Transcription Factors ,hemic and immune systems ,chemical and pharmacologic phenomena ,Biology ,T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory ,Article ,Mice ,Self Tolerance ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Infectious Diseases ,medicine ,Animals ,Humans ,Selfishness ,Immunology and Allergy ,media_common - Abstract
The majority of regulatory Foxp3+CD4+ T cells naturally arises in the thymus. It has been proposed that T cell receptors (TCRs) on these cells recognize self MHC class II-peptide complexes with high or higher affinity, and that their specificities mirror specificities of autoreactive T cells. Here we analyzed hundreds of TCRs derived from regulatory or non-regulatory T cells and found little evidence that the former population preferably recognizes self-antigens as agonists. Instead, these cells recognized foreign MHC-peptide complexes as often as non-regulatory T cells. Our results show that high affinity, autoreactive TCRs are rare on all CD4+ T cells and suggest that selecting self-peptide is different from the peptide that activates the same regulatory T cells in the periphery.
- Published
- 2007
- Full Text
- View/download PDF