Memory-like CD8+ and CD4+ T cells cooperate to break peripheral tolerance under lymphopenic conditions.

ABSTRACT: The onset of autoimmunity in experimental rodent models and patients frequently correlates with a lymphopenic state. In this condition, the immune system has evolved compensatory homeostatic mechanisms that induce quiescent naive T cells to proliferate and differentiate into memory-like lymphocytes even in the apparent absence of antigenic stimulation. Because memory T cells have less stringent requirements for activation than naive cells, we hypothesized that autoreactive T cells that arrive to secondary lymphoid organs in a lymphopenic environment could differentiate and bypass the mechanisms of peripheral tolerance such as those mediated by self-antigen cross-presentation. Here, we show that lymphopenia-driven proliferation and differentiation of potentially autoreactive CD8(+) T cells

SUBMITTER: Le Saout C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2587230 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature