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  • Follicular regulatory T cells expressing Foxp3 and Bcl-6 suppress germinal center reactions.

Follicular regulatory T cells expressing Foxp3 and Bcl-6 suppress germinal center reactions.

Nature medicine (2011-07-26)
Yeonseok Chung, Shinya Tanaka, Fuliang Chu, Roza I Nurieva, Gustavo J Martinez, Seema Rawal, Yi-Hong Wang, Hoyong Lim, Joseph M Reynolds, Xiao-hui Zhou, Hui-min Fan, Zhong-ming Liu, Sattva S Neelapu, Chen Dong
PMID21785430
ABSTRACT

Foxp3(+) regulatory T (T(reg)) cells suppress different types of immune responses to help maintain homeostasis in the body. How T(reg) cells regulate humoral immunity, including germinal center reactions, is unclear. Here we identify a subset of T(reg) cells expressing CXCR5 and Bcl-6 that localize to the germinal centers in mice and humans. The expression of CXCR5 on T(reg) cells depends on Bcl-6. These CXCR5(+)Bcl-6(+) T(reg) cells are absent in the thymus but can be generated de novo from CXCR5(-)Foxp3(+) natural T(reg) precursors. A lack of CXCR5(+) T(reg) cells leads to greater germinal center reactions including germinal center B cells, affinity maturation of antibodies and the differentiation of plasma cells. These results unveil a Bcl-6-CXCR5 axis in T(reg) cells that drives the development of follicular regulatory T (T(FR)) cells that function to inhibit the germinal center reactions.