TCR signal quantity and quality in CD4+ T cell differentiation

Noah J Tubo; Marc K Jenkins

doi:10.1016/j.it.2014.09.008

TCR signal quantity and quality in CD4⁺ T cell differentiation

Trends Immunol. 2014 Dec;35(12):591-596. doi: 10.1016/j.it.2014.09.008. Epub 2014 Oct 22.

Authors

Noah J Tubo¹, Marc K Jenkins²

Affiliations

¹ Center for Immunology, Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
² Center for Immunology, Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, USA. Electronic address: jenki002@umn.edu.

Abstract

The adaptive immune system protects its host from a myriad of pathogens. This ability stems from a vast set of lymphocytes, each with a different antigen receptor, a small number of which will bind to antigens derived from a given pathogen. Although the cells within any antigen-specific population appear to be relatively homogenous before antigenic encounter, recent work on T cells indicates that individual cells within the population differentiate in very different ways after exposure to the antigen. We focus here on studies of CD4⁺ T cells and review evidence indicating that variable differentiation of effector cells from single naïve cells is caused by both cell-extrinsic stochastic factors and cell-intrinsic factors related to T cell antigen receptor (TCR) signal quantity and quality.

Keywords: T cell differentiation; TCR signal strength; polyclonal.

Publication types

Review

Abstract

Publication types

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