TY - JOUR
T1 - Continuous T Cell Receptor Signals Maintain a Functional Regulatory T Cell Pool
AU - Vahl, J. Christoph
AU - Drees, Christoph
AU - Heger, Klaus
AU - Heink, Sylvia
AU - Fischer, Julius C.
AU - Nedjic, Jelena
AU - Ohkura, Naganari
AU - Morikawa, Hiromasa
AU - Poeck, Hendrik
AU - Schallenberg, Sonja
AU - Rieß, David
AU - Hein, Marco Y.
AU - Buch, Thorsten
AU - Polic, Bojan
AU - Schönle, Anne
AU - Zeiser, Robert
AU - Schmitt-Gräff, Annette
AU - Kretschmer, Karsten
AU - Klein, Ludger
AU - Korn, Thomas
AU - Sakaguchi, Shimon
AU - Schmidt-Supprian, Marc
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2014/11/20
Y1 - 2014/11/20
N2 - Regulatory T (Treg) cells maintain immune homeostasis and prevent inflammatory and autoimmune responses. During development, thymocytes bearing a moderately self-reactive Tcell receptor (TCR) can be selected to become Treg cells. Several observations suggest that also in the periphery mature Treg cells continuously receive self-reactive TCR signals. However, the importance of this inherent autoreactivity for Treg cell biology remains poorly defined. To address this open question, we genetically ablated the TCR of mature Treg cells invivo. These experiments revealed that TCR-induced Treg lineage-defining Foxp3 expression and gene hypomethylation were uncoupled from TCR input in mature Treg cells. However, Treg cell homeostasis, cell-type-specific gene expression and suppressive function critically depend on continuous triggering of their TCR.
AB - Regulatory T (Treg) cells maintain immune homeostasis and prevent inflammatory and autoimmune responses. During development, thymocytes bearing a moderately self-reactive Tcell receptor (TCR) can be selected to become Treg cells. Several observations suggest that also in the periphery mature Treg cells continuously receive self-reactive TCR signals. However, the importance of this inherent autoreactivity for Treg cell biology remains poorly defined. To address this open question, we genetically ablated the TCR of mature Treg cells invivo. These experiments revealed that TCR-induced Treg lineage-defining Foxp3 expression and gene hypomethylation were uncoupled from TCR input in mature Treg cells. However, Treg cell homeostasis, cell-type-specific gene expression and suppressive function critically depend on continuous triggering of their TCR.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84912113033&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.immuni.2014.10.012
DO - 10.1016/j.immuni.2014.10.012
M3 - Article
C2 - 25464853
AN - SCOPUS:84912113033
SN - 1074-7613
VL - 41
SP - 722
EP - 736
JO - Immunity
JF - Immunity
IS - 5
ER -