| First Author | Le Campion A | Year | 2009 |
| Journal | Blood | Volume | 114 |
| Issue | 9 | Pages | 1784-93 |
| PubMed ID | 19561321 | Mgi Jnum | J:152255 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:4357732 | Doi | 10.1182/blood-2008-12-192120 |
| Citation | Le Campion A, et al. (2009) Lymphopenia-induced spontaneous T-cell proliferation as a cofactor for autoimmune disease development. Blood 114(9):1784-93 |
| abstractText | Lymphopenia is thought to be a major cause of tolerance breakdown. In a lymphopenic environment, self-recognition events induce some T cells to expand strongly (a mechanism known as spontaneous proliferation). In this study, we show that in C57BL/6 mice, the repertoire resulting from lymphopenia-induced spontaneous CD4(+) T-cell proliferation included a proportion of regulatory T cells as large as that observed in a normal mouse, and no autoimmune disorder was observed. By contrast, in nonobese diabetic mice, differences in the ability of conventional and regulatory T cells to expand in response to lymphopenia led to an unbalance between these 2 T-cell compartments at the expense of regulatory T cells, resulting in the onset of autoimmune diseases. Notably, this accounted for the rapid transfer of diabetes with small numbers of BDC2.5 CD4(+) T cells. Thus, lymphopenia does not itself induce autoimmunity, but it should be considered as a cofactor for the development of autoimmune disorders. |
