Transcriptional and epigenetic control of T helper cell specification: molecular mechanisms underlying commitment and plasticity.

ABSTRACT: T helper cell differentiation occurs in the context of the extracellular cytokine milieu evoked by diverse microbes and other pathogenic stimuli along with T cell receptor stimulation. The culmination of these signals results in specification of T helper lineages, which occurs through the combinatorial action of multiple transcription factors that establish distinctive transcriptomes. In this manner, inducible, but constitutively active, master regulators work in conjunction with factors such as the signal transducer and activator of transcriptions (STATs) that sense the extracellular environment. The acquisition of a distinctive transcriptome also depends on chromatin modifications that impact key cis elements as well as the changes in global genomic organization. Thus, signal transductio

SUBMITTER: Kanno Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3314163 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature