Review

Nature Reviews Immunology 8, 337-348 (May 2008) | doi:10.1038/nri2295

TH17 cells in development: an updated view of their molecular identity and genetic programming

Chen Dong1  About the author

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Following activation, CD4+ T cells differentiate into different lineages of helper T (TH) cells that are characterized by distinct developmental regulation and biological functions. TH17 cells have recently been identified as a new lineage of effector TH cells, and they have been shown to be important in immune responses to infectious agents, as well as in various immune diseases. Over the past two to three years, there has been a rapid progress in our understanding of the differentiation programme of TH17 cells. Here, I summarize our current knowledge of the unique gene expression, cytokine-mediated regulation and transcriptional programming of TH17 cells, and provide my personal perspectives on the future studies that are required to elucidate this lineage in more detail.

Author affiliations

  1. Department of Immunology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.

Correspondence to: Email: cdong@mdanderson.org

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