Human thymic stromal lymphopoietin promotes dendritic cell-mediated CD4+ T cell homeostatic expansion.
T cell homeostasis is a self-regulating process for maintaining the size of the peripheral T cell pool. Although dendritic cells (DCs) seem to be important in T cell homeostasis, the molecular regulation of DC-mediated T cell homeostasis is unknown. We show that human DCs activated by thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) induced a robust expansion of autologous CD4(+) T cell populations, which depended on self peptide-major histocompatibility complex. The proliferating T cells adopted and maintained a central memory polyclonal phenotype and could differentiate into T helper type 1 or type 2 effector cells. These results, together with findings of TSLP expression in epithelial cells of mucosal lymphoid tissues and thymus, indicate that TSLP is involved in DC-mediated CD4(+) T cell homeostasis.
Department of Immunology, DNAX Research Institute, Palo Alto, California 94304-1104, USA.
Norihiko
N
Watanabe
Shino
S
Hanabuchi
Vassili
V
Soumelis
Wei
W
Yuan
Stephen
S
Ho
Rene
R
de Waal Malefyt
Yong-Jun
YJ
Liu
D000818:Animals; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D002455:Cell Division; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D006649:Histocompatibility Antigens / Q000502:physiology; D006706:Homeostasis / Q000502:physiology; D007156:Immunologic Memory / Q000276:immunology; D015851:Interleukin-7 / Q000378:metabolism*; D010455:Peptides / Q000502:physiology; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell / Q000378:metabolism; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000378:metabolism*
D006649:Histocompatibility Antigens; D015851:Interleukin-7; D010455:Peptides; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell