title: Taurine: energy drink for T cells.
abstract: The activation of T cells causes many cellular changes, including alterations in cell morphology, motility, and size. While all immunologists know that T cells increase their size and become "blasted" upon activation, little attention has been paid to the question of how cell size is regulated and how this process influences T-cell responses. In this issue of the European Journal of Immunology, Kaesler et al. [Eur. J. Immunol. 2012. 42: 831-841] demonstrate that the organic osmolyte taurine and its transporter Taut are instrumental in driving cell-volume regulation and therefore the T-cell response. In the absence of Taut, effector and memory T-cell responses in mice are severely impaired, mainly due to increased apoptosis of effector cells. Hence, this paper provides an important link between the regulation of cell size and effector T-cell responses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Zurich University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland. martin.bachmann@me.com
authors.forename: Martin F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Bachmann
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000276:immunology*; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000276:immunology*; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D000099247:Taurine Transporters
chemical_list: D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins; D000099247:Taurine Transporters