title: New technologies for monitoring human antigen-specific T cells and regulatory T cells by flow-cytometry.
abstract: T cells orchestrate and execute immune responses against certain antigens recognized by their antigen receptor. They can acquire a highly divers set of functional properties, which provide the basis for immune protection, but also for immune-pathologies and thus represent highly specific diagnostic and therapeutic targets. New cytometric technologies now allow identification and precise characterization of human conventional and regulatory T cells against basically any antigen and even within naive donors. These provide the basis for thorough analyses of immune protection against infections and to tackle unmet challenges such as T cell responses involved in tolerance and/or directed against undefined or complex antigens, that is, in autoimmunity or allergy. Together with the parallel evolution of single cell multi-parameter approaches this has revolutionized the quantitative and qualitative characterization of human T cells, bearing important diagnostic, prognostic or therapeutic potential.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular Immunology, Clinic for Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Charité - University Medicine Berlin, 10117 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bacher
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular Immunology, Clinic for Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Charité - University Medicine Berlin, 10117 Berlin, Germany; German Rheumatism Research Centre (DRFZ) Berlin, Leibniz Association, 10117 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: alexander.scheffold@charite.de.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Scheffold
mesh_terms: D000939:Epitopes / Q000276:immunology*; D005434:Flow Cytometry / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D007108:Immune Tolerance / Q000502:physiology*; D008222:Lymphokines / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D050378:T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000939:Epitopes; D008222:Lymphokines; C057264:antigen-specific helper factors