Rheumatology 2000; 39: 696-699
© 2000 British Society for Rheumatology
Editorials |
T-cell trafficking into sites of inflammation
Experimentelle Rheumatologie, Medizinische Klinik, Charité, Humboldt-Universität Berlin und Deutsches Rheumaforschungszentrum, 10117 Berlin, Germany
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
T cells are powerful and flexible regulators of the function of many immune and non-immune cells, besides their direct defence capabilities. The presence or absence of proinflammatory versus regulatory subsets has major effects on the course and outcome of inflammatory reactions, due to the distinct cytokines secreted. It is therefore of significant interest to know how T cells become attracted to sites of inflammation. Findings of the past decade have greatly increased our knowledge about these mechanisms, and strongly support the idea that intervention in these mechanisms might be of therapeutic value.
Homeostasis of the immune system involves the compartmentalization of lymphocyte populations. For example, naive lymphocytes recirculate much more efficiently than effector or memory cells through lymph nodes, Peyer's patches and the spleen. In contrast, activated cells become trapped by adhesion to vascular surface molecules in the liver, where a specific, apparently immunosuppressive environment is encountered, or the lungs.