Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Between Bedside and Bench
  • Published:

Weighing In On Autoimmune Disease: 'Hub-and-spoke' T cell traffic in autoimmunity

Nature Medicine volume 19, pages 139–141 (2013)Cite this article

Subjects

Lymphocytes function like a mobile army within the body—they can exit lymphoid tissues and move via the bloodstream to combat infections in different organs and perhaps to engage in cancer surveillance. At times, autoaggressive immune cells, however, home to organs where they induce specific autoimmune diseases. We now learn that lymphocyte movement from lymphoid sites to specific organs seems to follow a 'hub-and-spoke' pattern in autoimmune disease.

Pharmacological modulation of lymphocyte traffic is effective in treating multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease1. When the preclinical proof of concept for blockade of homing preventing autoimmune disease was first shown 20 years ago, the prevalent explanation was that the target of these therapeutic monoclonals was a specific molecule that served as a simple molecular 'zip code'. These zip codes somehow specified entry of immune cells to specific organs from the bloodstream, which prompted blockade of these 'gateway' molecules as the basis for treatment efficacy in models of autoimmunity1. However, we are now learning that lymphocyte traffic is more complex than we had previously realized. Our current level of understanding of lymphocyte traffic provides new strategies for therapy and for better understanding of disease pathogenesis.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Lymphocyte migration from lymphoid organs to a target organ follows a hub-and-spoke pattern.

Marina Corral

References

  1. Steinman, L. J. Cell Biol. 199, 413–416 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Odoardi, F. et al. Nature 488, 675–679 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Barabási, A.-L. Science 325, 412–413 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Yang, X.D. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 90, 10494–10498 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Ghosh, S. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 348, 24–32 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Streeter, P.R. et al. Nature 331, 41–46 (1988).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Yednock, T.A. et al. J. Cell Biol. 104, 725–731 (1987).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Steinman, L. Nat. Rev. Immunol. 9, 440–447 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Gallatin, W.M. Nature 304, 30–34 (1983).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Ransohoff, R.M. Immunity 31, 711–721 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Stüve, O. et al. Ann. Neurol. 40, 853–863 (1996).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Hedström, A.K. et al. Brain 134, 653–664 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Brinkmann, V. et al. Nat. Rev. Drug Discov. 9, 883–897 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lawrence Steinman is in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.,

    Lawrence Steinman

Authors
  1. Lawrence Steinman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lawrence Steinman.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Steinman, L. Weighing In On Autoimmune Disease: 'Hub-and-spoke' T cell traffic in autoimmunity. Nat Med 19, 139–141 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3088

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3088

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing