title: Regulator T cells: specific for antigen and/or antigen receptors?
abstract: Adaptive immune responses are regulated by many different molecular and cellular effectors. Regulator T cells are coming to their rights again, and these T cells seem to have ordinary alpha/beta T-cell receptors (TCRs) and to develop in the thymus. Autoimmune responses are tightly regulated by such regulatory T cells, a phenomenon which is beneficial to the host in autoimmune situations. However, the regulation of autoimmune responses to tumour cells is harmful to the host, as this regulation delays the defence against the outgrowth of neoplastic cells. In the present review, we discuss whether regulatory T cells are specific for antigen and/or for antigen receptors. Our interest in these phenomena comes from the findings that T cells produce many more TCR-alpha and TCR-beta chains than are necessary for surface membrane expression of TCR-alphabeta heterodimers with CD3 complexes. Excess TCR chains are degraded by the proteasomes, and TCR peptides thus become available to the assembly pathway of major histocompatibility complex class I molecules. Consequently, do T cells express two different identification markers on the cell membrane, the TCR-alphabeta clonotype for recognition by B-cell receptors and clonotypic TCR-alphabeta peptides for recognition by T cells?
authors.affiliation: La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, Division of Immune Regulation, San Diego, CA, USA. rubin@immgen.cnrs.fr
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rubin
authors.forename: Y Diaz
authors.initials: YD
authors.lastname: de Durana
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: E E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Sercarz
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D017951:Antigen Presentation; D000941:Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000276:immunology; D015551:Autoimmunity / Q000276:immunology; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D003546:Cysteine Endopeptidases / Q000378:metabolism; D004681:Encephalomyelitis, Autoimmune, Experimental / Q000276:immunology; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte / Q000276:immunology; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D018448:Models, Immunological; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009097:Multienzyme Complexes / Q000378:metabolism; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000276:immunology; D046988:Proteasome Endopeptidase Complex; D017260:Receptor-CD3 Complex, Antigen, T-Cell / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000276:immunology; D011947:Receptors, Antigen, B-Cell / Q000276:immunology; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000276:immunology*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000941:Antigens; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I; D009097:Multienzyme Complexes; D010446:Peptide Fragments; D017260:Receptor-CD3 Complex, Antigen, T-Cell; D011947:Receptors, Antigen, B-Cell; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta; D003546:Cysteine Endopeptidases; D046988:Proteasome Endopeptidase Complex