title: Regulation of mature T cell homeostasis.
abstract: The overall size and the composition of the mature T cell pool are regulated by homeostatic mechanisms. Recent work has revealed that homeostatic signals are received from contact with two members of the common gamma chain family of cytokines, IL-7 and IL-15, and from self-MHC/peptide ligands. In essence, homeostasis of naïve T cells is regulated by IL-7 and self-MHC/peptide ligands and homeostasis of memory CD8 cells is controlled by IL-7 and IL-15. All of these signals also appear to be important to a varying degree for homeostasis of memory CD4 cells, but the details are less well understood than for other cell type.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, IMM-26, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. csurh@scripps.edu
authors.forename: Charles D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Surh
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sprent
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016207:Cytokines / Q000378:metabolism*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006706:Homeostasis / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D007156:Immunologic Memory; D051379:Mice; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines