期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2010
卷号：107
期号：13
页码：5919-5924
DOI：10.1073/pnas.1002006107
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Regulatory T (Treg) cells that express the Foxp3 transcription factor are essential for lymphoid homeostasis and immune tolerance to self. Other nonimmunological functions of Treg cells, such as controlling metabolic function in adipose tissue, are also emerging. Treg cells originate primarily in the thymus, but can also be elicited from conventional T cells by in vivo exposure to low-dose antigen or homeostatic expansion or by activation in the presence of TGF{beta} in vitro. Treg cells are characterized by a distinct transcriptional signature controlled in part, but not solely, by Foxp3. For a better perspective on transcriptional control in Treg cells, we compared gene expression profiles of a broad panel of Treg cells from various origins or anatomical locations. Treg cells generated by different means form different subphenotypes and were identifiable by particular combinations of transcripts, none of which fully encompassed the entire Treg signature. Molecules involved in Treg cell effector function, chemokine receptors, and the transcription factors that control them were differentially represented in these subphenotypes. Treg cells from the gut proved dissimilar to cells elicited by exposure to TGF{beta} in vitro, but instead they resembled a CD103+Klrg1+ subphenotype preferentially generated in response to lymphopenia.
