Immune regulation: a new role for the CD8+ T cell.
During an immune response, peripheral T cells develop into functionally distinct subpopulations that effect cell-mediated immunity and regulate humoral immune responses through the secretion of specific cytokines. Recent data suggest that CD8+ T cells, which have long been regarded simply as cytotoxic cells, play a more active role in the regulation of the immune response. In this article, Mike Kemeny and colleagues suggest that there are functionally distinct subsets of CD8+ T cells that produce different combinations of cytokines and appear to play an important part in determining the pattern of cytokines produced by CD4+ T cells and the isotype of immunoglobulins expressed by B cells.
Kemeny
D M
DM
Dept of Allergy and Allied Respiratory Disorders, United Medical School of Guy's Hospital, London, UK.
Noble
A
A
Holmes
B J
BJ
Diaz-Sanchez
D
D
D000818:Animals; D016827:CD8 Antigens / Q000502:physiology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000276:immunology; D007073:Immunoglobulin E / Q000096:biosynthesis; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000502:physiology*
D016827:CD8 Antigens; D007073:Immunoglobulin E