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Immunology

T cells hang in the balance

Nature volume 453, pages 46–47 (2008)Cite this article

Equally important as the immune system's function in fighting invaders is its ability to tolerate self. But environmental toxins could shift the equilibrium between these activities one way or the other.

To ensure the efficient execution of its various activities, the immune system has distributed responsibility between different sets of its cells. But disease, pathogens and pollutants might disrupt the levels and functions of these cells. Take two subsets of T cells for instance: Treg cells are involved in recognizing and 'tolerating' the body's own cells and molecules as harmless; TH17 cells, by contrast, promote inflammation. In this issue, Quintana et al.1(page 65) and Veldhoen et al.2 (page 106) demonstrate that environmental toxins tilt the balance in the levels of these two cell types, altering the severity of experimental autoimmune encephalitis (EAE), a condition in mice that mimics multiple sclerosis.

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Figure 1: One cell's poison is another cell's antidote.

References

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Affiliations

  1. Emily A. Stevens and Christopher A. Bradfield are in the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA. bradfield@oncology.wisc.edu

    Emily A. Stevens & Christopher A. Bradfield

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  1. Emily A. Stevens
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  2. Christopher A. Bradfield
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Stevens, E., Bradfield, C. T cells hang in the balance. Nature 453, 46–47 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/453046a

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