Nature Immunology5, 426 - 434 (2004)
Published online: 29 February 2004; | doi:10.1038/ni1048
Human thymic stromal lymphopoietin promotes dendritic cell−mediated CD4+ T cell homeostatic expansion
Norihiko Watanabe1, 2, Shino Hanabuchi1, 2, Vassili Soumelis1, 2, Wei Yuan1, Stephen Ho1, Rene de Waal Malefyt1
& Yong-Jun Liu1, 2
1
Department of Immunology, DNAX Research Institute, Palo Alto, California
94304-1104, USA.
2
Present addresses: Department of Immunology, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas, Houston, Texas
77030-4009, USA (N.W., S.H. and Y.-J.L.) and Department of Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation, Necker Hospital, 75015
Paris, France (V.S.).
T cell homeostasis is a self-regulating process for maintaining the size of the peripheral T cell pool. Although dendritic cells (DCs) seem to be important in T cell homeostasis, the molecular regulation of DC-mediated T cell homeostasis is unknown. We show that human DCs activated by thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) induced a robust expansion of autologous CD4+ T cell populations, which depended on self peptide−major histocompatibility complex. The proliferating T cells adopted and maintained a central memory polyclonal phenotype and could differentiate into T helper type 1 or type 2 effector cells. These results, together with findings of TSLP expression in epithelial cells of mucosal lymphoid tissues and thymus, indicate that TSLP is involved in DC-mediated CD4+ T cell homeostasis.
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