| First Author | Kastner L | Year | 2010 |
| Journal | J Immunol | Volume | 185 |
| Issue | 10 | Pages | 5778-86 |
| PubMed ID | 20926793 | Mgi Jnum | J:165649 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:4837966 | Doi | 10.4049/jimmunol.0901948 |
| Citation | Kastner L, et al. (2010) Synergistic Effect of IL-6 and IL-4 in Driving Fate Revision of Natural Foxp3+ Regulatory T Cells. J Immunol 185(10):5778-86 |
| abstractText | Expression of forkhead transcription factor Foxp3 defines a distinct lineage of naturally arising regulatory T cells (nTregs) that is segregated from effector CD4(+) T cells during early development in the thymus. It remains elusive whether nTregs can convert into effector cells by turning off their Foxp3 expression and, if so, whether Th17 is a default alternative fate choice. In this report we provide compelling evidence showing that effector T cell-polarizing cytokines IL-6 and IL-4 can act synergistically to induce marked downregulation and inactivation of Foxp3 gene expression in mouse nTregs, and consequently the loss of suppressor phenotype and functions. However, the resulting Foxp3(-) cells are not polarized and do not express IL-17 or other Th17-associated genes. Therefore, nTreg fate revision is not restricted to the Treg-Th17 axis and is likely to represent a rather broad phenomenon with divergent outcomes. |
