Sharma R, Jarjour WN, Zheng L, Gaskin F, Fu SM, Ju ST. Large functional repertoire of regulatory T-cell suppressible autoimmune T cells in scurfy mice.
J Autoimmun 2007;
29:10-9. [PMID:
17521882 PMCID:
PMC2099300 DOI:
10.1016/j.jaut.2007.04.001]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2007] [Revised: 03/28/2007] [Accepted: 04/01/2007] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
Scurfy mice which lacks functional Foxp3 transcription factor and CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3(+) regulatory T (Treg) cells, spontaneously develop autoimmune responses against skin, lung, liver and tail. However, many organs/tissues are spared from autoimmune attack. Here, we demonstrate that scurfy mice contain dormant autoimmune T cells that induced new diseases such as sialoadenitis, dacryoadenitis, pancreatitis, gastritis, intestinal inflammation, colitis, and myositis in RAG-1 KO mice. Inflammation in as many as 12 organs/tissues was consistently induced in individual recipients with scurfy lymph node cells containing as few as 1.25 x 10(6) CD4(+) T cells. Moreover, transfer of the multiple organ autoimmune diseases could be suppressed by as little as 0.5 x 10(6) CD4(+)CD25(+) Treg cells, mediated by inhibiting autoimmune T-cell expansion. Our study provides evidence for the presence of a large repertoire of autoimmune lymphocytes against various organs/tissues in scurfy mice as well as Treg cells in B6 mice capable of suppressing the expansion of these autoimmune lymphocytes. Various conditions that control the expression of autoimmune T cells are discussed.
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