Abstract
The role of anergy, an acquired state of T cell functional unresponsiveness, in natural peripheral tolerance remains unclear. In this study, we found that anergy was selectively induced in fetal antigen-specific maternal CD4+ T cells during pregnancy. A naturally occurring subpopulation of anergic polyclonal CD4+ T cells, enriched for self antigen-specific T cell antigen receptors, was also present in healthy hosts. Neuropilin-1 expression in anergic conventional CD4+ T cells was associated with hypomethylation of genes related to thymic regulatory T cells (T reg cells), and this correlated with their ability to differentiate into Foxp3 + T reg cells that suppressed immunopathology. Thus, our data suggest that not only is anergy induction important in preventing autoimmunity but also it generates the precursors for peripheral T reg cell differentiation.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 304-314 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Nature immunology |
Volume | 17 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 1 2016 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2016 Nature America, Inc.