Progesterone promotes differentiation of human cord blood fetal T cells into T regulatory cells but suppresses their differentiation into Th17 cells.

ABSTRACT: Progesterone, a key female sex hormone with pleiotropic functions in maintenance of pregnancy, has profound effects on regulation of immune responses. We report in this work a novel function of progesterone in regulation of naive cord blood (CB) fetal T cell differentiation into key T regulatory cell (Treg) subsets. Progesterone drives allogeneic activation-induced differentiation of CB naive, but not adult peripheral blood, T cells into immune-suppressive Tregs, many of which express FoxP3. Compared with those induced in the absence of progesterone, the FoxP3(+) T cells induced in the presence of progesterone highly expressed memory T cell markers. In this regard, the Treg compartment in progesterone-rich CB is enriched with memory-type FoxP3(+) T cells. Moreover, CB APCs were more effici

SUBMITTER: Lee JH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3155957 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature