Murine CD8+ regulatory T lymphocytes: the new era.
Regulatory T lymphocytes unequivocally play a major role in the maintenance of immunologic homeostasis. The first descriptions of regulatory T lymphocytes concerned CD8(+) cells, but this field was brought into discredit when some of its central tenets turned out to be erroneous. CD4(+) regulatory T cells took over and, with the help of newly developed molecular tools, rapidly were phenotypically and functionally characterized. We now know that these cells control a large variety of immune responses. However some observations of in vitro or in vivo immune regulation could not be explained with CD4(+) regulatory T cell activity and depended on the action of a variety of CD8(+) T cell populations. In recent years, substantial progress has been made in the phenotypic and functional characterization of CD8(+) regulatory T cells. These cells play a role in the control of intestinal immunity, immunopathology, and autoimmunity, as well as in immune privilege of the eye, in oral tolerance, and in prevention of graft-versus-host disease and graft-rejection. The suppressor effector mechanisms used by these cells are in part shared with CD4(+) regulatory T cells and in part unique to this population. We here review the current literature on naturally occurring and experimentally induced murine CD8(+) regulatory T-cell populations.
Pomié
Céline
C
Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U563, Tolerance and Autoimmunity Section, Toulouse, France.
Ménager-Marcq
Ingrid
I
van Meerwijk
Joost P M
JP
D000818:Animals; D015551:Autoimmunity; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D007108:Immune Tolerance; D007422:Intestines / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology*; D050378:T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / Q000276:immunology