A mechanism for expansion of regulatory T-cell repertoire and its role in self-tolerance.
Journal Article (Journal Article)
T-cell receptor (TCR) signalling has a key role in determining T-cell fate. Precursor cells expressing TCRs within a certain low-affinity range for complexes of self-peptide and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) undergo positive selection and differentiate into naive T cells expressing a highly diverse self-MHC-restricted TCR repertoire. In contrast, precursors displaying TCRs with a high affinity for 'self' are either eliminated through TCR-agonist-induced apoptosis (negative selection) or restrained by regulatory T (Treg) cells, whose differentiation and function are controlled by the X-chromosome-encoded transcription factor Foxp3 (reviewed in ref. 2). Foxp3 is expressed in a fraction of self-reactive T cells that escape negative selection in response to agonist-driven TCR signals combined with interleukin 2 (IL-2) receptor signalling. In addition to Treg cells, TCR-agonist-driven selection results in the generation of several other specialized T-cell lineages such as natural killer T cells and innate mucosal-associated invariant T cells. Although the latter exhibit a restricted TCR repertoire, Treg cells display a highly diverse collection of TCRs. Here we explore in mice whether a specialized mechanism enables agonist-driven selection of Treg cells with a diverse TCR repertoire, and the importance this holds for self-tolerance. We show that the intronic Foxp3 enhancer conserved noncoding sequence 3 (CNS3) acts as an epigenetic switch that confers a poised state to the Foxp3 promoter in precursor cells to make Treg cell lineage commitment responsive to a broad range of TCR stimuli, particularly to suboptimal ones. CNS3-dependent expansion of the TCR repertoire enables Treg cells to control self-reactive T cells effectively, especially when thymic negative selection is genetically impaired. Our findings highlight the complementary roles of these two main mechanisms of self-tolerance.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- Feng, Y; van der Veeken, J; Shugay, M; Putintseva, EV; Osmanbeyoglu, HU; Dikiy, S; Hoyos, BE; Moltedo, B; Hemmers, S; Treuting, P; Leslie, CS; Chudakov, DM; Rudensky, AY
Published Date
- December 3, 2015
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 528 / 7580
Start / End Page
- 132 - 136
PubMed ID
- 26605529
Pubmed Central ID
- PMC4862833
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1476-4687
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1038/nature16141
Language
- eng
Conference Location
- England