抄録
Imbalance of Th1/Th2 responses is associated with the development of human allergic and autoimmune diseases. We found that Txk expression is restricted to Th 1/Th 0 cells that have IFN-γ producing potential, and that Txk regulates differentiation of naive T cells into Th 1 cells in normal humans.
We first studied expression of Txk in normal T cells cultured with various Th 1 and Th 2 cytokines. We found that Txk expression in the T cells was enhanced by Th 1 cytokines (IL-12, IFN-γ and IL-18) . Th 2 cytokines (IL-4 and IL-13) inhibited Txk expression. We next studied whether Txk expression was modulated in patients with bronchial asthma, atopic dermatitis and rheumatoid arthritis. Txk expression in the peripheral blood T cell is reduced in patients with allergic diseases. In contrast, synovium infiltrating T cells exhibited enhanced Txk expression. Collectively, we found that Th 1 as well as Th 2 cytokines regulated Txk expression. In turn, aberrant Txk expression was involved in the Th 1/Th 2 imbalance in patients with allergic and autoimmune diseases. Txk may become a possible therapeutic target of the diseases with Th1/Th2 imbalance.
