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.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Good guys gone bad: exTreg cells promote autoimmune arthritis

Under most circumstances, Foxp3+ regulatory T (Treg) cells are a stable T cell population essential for maintaining self-tolerance. A study now shows that the inflammatory environment in autoimmune arthritis induces conversion of a subset of Foxp3+ T cells into interleukin-17–producing cells that contribute to disease pathogenesis (pages 62–68).

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

Access options

Buy this article

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

Figure 1: Inflammatory conditions during arthritis convert a subset of Foxp3+ T cells into pathogenic TH17 cells.

Marina Corral Spence

References

  1. Rubtsov, Y.P. et al. Science 329, 1667–1671 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Fu, W. et al. Nat. Immunol. 13, 972–980 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Zhou, X. et al. Nat. Immunol. 10, 1000–1007 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Cvetanovich, G.L. & Hafler, D.A. Curr. Opin. Immunol. 22, 753–760 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Komatsu, N. et al. Nat. Med. 20, 62–68 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Bailey-Bucktrout, S.L. et al. Immunity 39, 949–962 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Edwards, J.R. & Mundy, G.R. Rheumatology 7, 235–243 (2011).

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Miyao, T. et al. Immunity 36, 262–275 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Ohkura, N. et al. Immunity 37, 785–799 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Williams, L.M. & Rudensky, A.Y. Nat. Immunol. 8, 277–284 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Koch, M.A. et al. Nat. Immunol. 10, 595–602 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Chaudhry, A. et al. Science 326, 986–991 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Bettelli, E. et al. Nature 441, 235–238 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Korn, T. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 105, 18460–18465 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Nie, H. et al. Nat. Med. 19, 322–328 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Korn, T. et al. Nat. Med. 13, 423–431 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vijay K Kuchroo.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Joller, N., Kuchroo, V. Good guys gone bad: exTreg cells promote autoimmune arthritis. Nat Med 20, 15–17 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3439

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3439

This article is cited by

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