Regulatory T cells protect from autoimmune arthritis during pregnancy

详细信息	查看全文 | 推荐本文 |

• 作者：Alba Munoz-Suano¹ ; Marinos Kallikourdis¹ ; ² ; Milka Sarris¹ ; ³ ; Alexander G. Betz ; ^{betz@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk}
• 关键词：Rheumatoid arthritis ; Pregnancy ; Regulatory T cells ; Mouse model
• 刊名：Journal of Autoimmunity
• 出版年：2012
• 期刊代码：101_08968411
• 类别：imm
• 出版时间：May, 2012
• 卷：38
• 期：2-3
• 页码：J103-J108
• 文件大小：360 K

摘要

Pregnancy frequently has a beneficial effect on the autoimmune disease Rheumatoid Arthritis, ranging from improvement in clinical symptoms to complete remission. Despite decades of study, a mechanistic explanation remains elusive. Here, we demonstrate that an analogous pregnancy-induced remission can be observed in a mouse model of arthritis. We demonstrate that during pregnancy mice are protected from collagen-induced arthritis, but are still capable of launching normal immune responses to influenza infections. We examine the role of regulatory T (T_R) cells in this beneficial effect. T_R cells are essential for many aspects of immune tolerance, including the suppression of autoimmune responses. Remarkably, transfer of regulatory T cells from pregnant 鈥榩rotected鈥?mice was sufficient to confer protection to non-pregnant mice. These results suggest that regulatory T cells are responsible for the pregnancy-induced amelioration of arthritis.