RESEARCH ARTICLE


Role of γδ T Cells in Lung Inflammation



Willi K. Born*, 1, Christina L. Roark1, Niyun Jin1, JM Wands1, M. Kemal Aydintug1, Yafei Huang1, Jennifer L. Chain1, Youn-Soo Hahn2, Philip L. Simonian3, Andrew P. Fontenot3, Rebecca L. O'Brien1
1 Integrated Department of Immunology, National Jewish Health, 1400 Jackson Street, Denver, CO, 80206 and University of Colorado Denver, Aurora, CO 80045, USA
2 Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine and Medical Research Institute, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 361-711 and 240, Korea
3 Department of Medicine, University of Colorado Denver, Aurora, CO 80045, USA

Article Information


Identifiers and Pagination:

Year: 2009
Volume: 2
First Page: 143
Last Page: 150
Publisher Id: TOIJ-2-143
DOI: 10.2174/1874226200902010143

Article History:

Received Date: 27/2/2009
Revision Received Date: 25/5/2009
Acceptance Date: 25/5/2009
Electronic publication date: 23/10/2009
Collection year: 2009

© 2009 Bornet al;

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Integrated Department of Immunology, National Jewish Health, 1400 Jackson Street, Street, GB K409, Denver, CO, 80206; Tel: 303-398-1087; Fax: 303-398-1396; E-mail: bornw@njc.org


Abstract

The resident population of γδ T cells in the normal lung is small but during lung inflammation, γδ T cells can increase dramatically. Histological analysis reveals diverse interactions between γδ T cells and other pulmonary leukocytes. Studies in animal models show that γδ T cells play a role in allergic lung inflammation where they can protect normal lung function, that they also are capable of resolving infection-induced pulmonary inflammation, and that they can help preventing pulmonary fibrosis. Lung inflammation threatens vital lung functions. Protection of the lung tissues and their functions during inflammation is the net-effect of opposing influences of specialized subsets of γδ T cells as well as interactions of these cells with other pulmonary leukocytes.

Keywords: T Cells, Lung, Inflammation.