Transforming growth factor-beta: innately bipolar.
Widely heralded for depressing ongoing immune responses, renewed interest in the proficiency by which transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) not only engages but also might drive an over-reactive innate response highlights its bipolar nature. Although coordination of the development and function of Treg, in addition to direct inhibition of cellular activation, are prominent pathways by which TGF-beta controls adaptive immunity, paradoxically TGF-beta appears instrumental in initiation of host responses to invasion through recruitment and activation of immune cells and persuasion of Th17 lineage commitment. Nevertheless, true to its manic-depressive behavior, new evidence links TGF-beta with depression of innate cells, including NK cells, and by way of a potential bridge between mast cells and Treg. Disruption of the tenuous balance between these opposing actions of TGF-beta underlies immunopathogenicity.
Wahl
Sharon M
SM
Oral Infection and Immunity Branch, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD 20892-4352, USA. smwahl@dir.nidcr.nih.gov
D000818:Animals; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology; D019070:Cell Lineage / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D007249:Inflammation / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000502:physiology*
D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta