Hobit and human effector T-cell differentiation: The beginning of a long journey.
Eur J Immunol
; 45(10): 2762-5, 2015 Oct.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-26440905
ABSTRACT
Besides growing plants, eating a lot, and drinking beer, Tolkien's Hobbits enjoy maintaining a quiet state. Regarding the latter, the name chosen for a recently discovered transcription factor seems to be unintentionally appropriate. The zinc finger protein ZNF683 was originally named "Hobit" for Homolog of Blimp-1 in T cells. In this issue of the European Journal of Immunology, Braga et al. [Eur. J. Immunol. 2015. 45 2945-2958] demonstrate that in humans, Hobit is almost exclusively expressed in effector T cells, in particular in quiescent and long-lived effector-type CD8(+) T cells. Hobit may initially appear as another "player" in the quest for transcription factors guiding T-cell differentiation; the discoveries of T-bet, Eomes, Blimp-1, and others have significantly contributed to our understanding of how this process is tightly regulated. However, Hobit may be special--the currently available results suggest substantial differences in Hobit's regulatory functions between mice and humans, such as expression patterns and IFN-γ regulation. And it may turn out that Hobit's function in human T cells is highly adapted to lifelong, periodic challenges with varying, physiological doses of pathogens. Thus, the new study about Hobit in human T cells may be the beginning of a long journey.
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Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Fatores de Transcrição
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Diferenciação Celular
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Regulação da Expressão Gênica
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Interferon gama
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Linfócitos T CD8-Positivos
Limite:
Animals
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Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Eur J Immunol
Ano de publicação:
2015
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Alemanha