| First Author | Gasteiger G | Year | 2013 |
| Journal | J Exp Med | Volume | 210 |
| Issue | 6 | Pages | 1167-78 |
| PubMed ID | 23650441 | Mgi Jnum | J:200961 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:5510312 | Doi | 10.1084/jem.20122462 |
| Citation | Gasteiger G, et al. (2013) IL-2-dependent tuning of NK cell sensitivity for target cells is controlled by regulatory T cells. J Exp Med 210(6):1167-78 |
| abstractText | The emergence of the adaptive immune system took a toll in the form of pathologies mediated by self-reactive cells. Regulatory T cells (T reg cells) exert a critical brake on responses of T and B lymphocytes to self- and foreign antigens. Here, we asked whether T reg cells are required to restrain NK cells, the third lymphocyte lineage, whose features combine innate and adaptive immune cell properties. Although depletion of T reg cells led to systemic fatal autoimmunity, NK cell tolerance and reactivity to strong activating self- and non-self-ligands remained largely intact. In contrast, missing-self responses were increased in the absence of T reg cells as the result of heightened IL-2 availability. We found that IL-2 rapidly boosted the capacity of NK cells to productively engage target cells and enabled NK cell responses to weak stimulation. Our results suggest that IL-2-dependent adaptive-innate lymphocyte cross talk tunes NK cell reactivity and that T reg cells restrain NK cell cytotoxicity by limiting the availability of IL-2. |
