Abstract
Natural Tregs play an essential role in controlling self-tolerance but the in vivo sites of Treg-mediated suppression remain controversial. We have previously reported the identification of distinct naïve and memory Treg populations in human circulating lymphocytes. Here we show that memory Tregs contain high proportions of inflammatory chemokine-expressing cells and comprise two populations that differ in the expression of the lymphoid chemokine receptor CCR7 and represent the counterparts of conventional CCR7+ central memory (CM) and CCR7- effector memory (EM) T cells. CM and EM Tregs exert comparable ex vivo suppressor functions but the EM population is more prominent among Tregs as compared to conventional CD4+ T cells, and is the main Treg subset found in ovarian tumors. Our data suggest that a division of labor between CM and EM Tregs ensures tolerance at lymphoid and peripheral locations including tumor sites.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 291-302 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Clinical Immunology |
Volume | 126 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 2008 |
Keywords
- Immune regulation
- Regulatory T cells
- T cell homing
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Immunology and Allergy
- Immunology