- Letter
- Published:
Reciprocal developmental pathways for the generation of pathogenic effector TH17 and regulatory T cells
- Estelle Bettelli1 na1,
- Yijun Carrier1 na1,
- Wenda Gao2 na1,
- Thomas Korn1,
- Terry B. Strom2,
- Mohamed Oukka3,
- Howard L. Weiner1 &
- …
- Vijay K. Kuchroo1
Naturevolume 441, pages235–238 (2006)Cite this article
38kAccesses
6164Citations
16Altmetric
Abstract
On activation, T cells undergo distinct developmental pathways, attaining specialized properties and effector functions. T-helper (TH) cells are traditionally thought to differentiate into TH1 and TH2 cell subsets. TH1 cells are necessary to clear intracellular pathogens and TH2 cells are important for clearing extracellular organisms1,2. Recently, a subset of interleukin (IL)-17-producing T (TH17) cells distinct from TH1 or TH2 cells has been described and shown to have a crucial role in the induction of autoimmune tissue injury3,4,5. In contrast, CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T (Treg) cells inhibit autoimmunity and protect against tissue injury6. Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) is a critical differentiation factor for the generation of Treg cells7. Here we show, using mice with a reporter introduced into the endogenousFoxp3 locus, that IL-6, an acute phase protein induced during inflammation8,9, completely inhibits the generation of Foxp3+ Treg cells induced by TGF-β. We also demonstrate that IL-23 is not the differentiation factor for the generation of TH17 cells. Instead, IL-6 and TGF-β together induce the differentiation of pathogenic TH17 cells from naive T cells. Our data demonstrate a dichotomy in the generation of pathogenic (TH17) T cells that induce autoimmunity and regulatory (Foxp3+) T cells that inhibit autoimmune tissue injury.
This is a preview of subscription content,access via your institution
Access options
Subscription info for Japanese customers
We have a dedicated website for our Japanese customers. Please go tonatureasia.com to subscribe to this journal.
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to the full article PDF.
¥ 4,980
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout




Similar content being viewed by others
References
Mosmann, T. R. & Coffman, R. L. TH1 and TH2 cells: different patterns of lymphokine secretion lead to different functional properties.Annu. Rev. Immunol.7, 145–173 (1989)
Bottomly, K. A functional dichotomy in CD4+ T lymphocytes.Immunol. Today9, 268–274 (1988)
Langrish, C. L. et al. IL-23 drives a pathogenic T cell population that induces autoimmune inflammation.J. Exp. Med.201, 233–240 (2005)
Harrington, L. E. et al. Interleukin 17-producing CD4+ effector T cells develop via a lineage distinct from the T helper type 1 and 2 lineages.Nature Immunol.6, 1123–1132 (2005)
Park, H. et al. A distinct lineage of CD4 T cells regulates tissue inflammation by producing interleukin 17.Nature Immunol.6, 1133–1141 (2005)
Sakaguchi, S. Naturally arising CD4+ regulatory T cells for immunologic self-tolerance and negative control of immune responses.Annu. Rev. Immunol.22, 531–562 (2004)
Chen, W. et al. Conversion of peripheral CD4+CD25- naive T cells to CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells by TGF-β induction of transcription factor Foxp3.J. Exp. Med.198, 1875–1886 (2003)
Hirano, T. Interleukin 6 and its receptor: ten years later.Int. Rev. Immunol.16, 249–284 (1998)
Ozato, K., Tsujimura, H. & Tamura, T. Toll-like receptor signaling and regulation of cytokine gene expression in the immune system.Biotechniques33 (Suppl.), S66–S68 (2002)
Hori, S., Nomura, T. & Sakaguchi, S. Control of regulatory T cell development by the transcription factor Foxp3.Science299, 1057–1061 (2003)
Fontenot, J. D., Gavin, M. A. & Rudensky, A. Y. Foxp3 programs the development and function of CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells.Nature Immunol.4, 330–336 (2003)
Khattri, R., Cox, T., Yasayko, S. A. & Ramsdell, F. An essential role for Scurfin in CD4+CD25+ T regulatory cells.Nature Immunol.4, 337–342 (2003)
Bettelli, E. et al. Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein-specific T cell receptor transgenic mice develop spontaneous autoimmune optic neuritis.J. Exp. Med.197, 1073–1081 (2003)
Aggarwal, S., Ghilardi, N., Xie, M. H., de Sauvage, F. J. & Gurney, A. L. Interleukin-23 promotes a distinct CD4 T cell activation state characterized by the production of interleukin-17.J. Biol. Chem.278, 1910–1914 (2003)
Parham, C. et al. A receptor for the heterodimeric cytokine IL-23 is composed of IL-12Rβ1 and a novel cytokine receptor subunit, IL-23R.J. Immunol.168, 5699–5708 (2002)
Veldhoen, M., Hocking, R. J., Atkins, C. J., Locksley, R. M. & Stockinger, B. TGFβ in the context of an inflammatory cytokine milieu supportsde novo differentiation of IL-17-producing T cells.Immunity24, 179–189 (2006)
Gorelik, L. & Flavell, R. A. Transforming growth factor-β in T-cell biology.Nature Rev. Immunol.2, 46–53 (2002)
Shull, M. M. et al. Targeted disruption of the mouse transforming growth factor-β1 gene results in multifocal inflammatory disease.Nature359, 693–699 (1992)
Nardelli, D. T. et al. Association of CD4+ CD25+ T cells with prevention of severe destructive arthritis inBorrelia burgdorferi-vaccinated and challenged gamma interferon-deficient mice treated with anti-interleukin-17 antibody.Clin. Diagn. Lab. Immunol.11, 1075–1084 (2004)
Samoilova, E. B., Horton, J. L., Hilliard, B., Liu, T. S. & Chen, Y. IL-6-deficient mice are resistant to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis: roles of IL-6 in the activation and differentiation of autoreactive T cells.J. Immunol.161, 6480–6486 (1998)
Okuda, Y. et al. IL-6 plays a crucial role in the induction phase of myelin oligodendrocyte glucoprotein 35–55 induced experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.J. Neuroimmunol.101, 188–196 (1999)
Okuda, Y., Sakoda, S., Saeki, Y., Kishimoto, T. & Yanagihara, T. Enhancement of Th2 response in IL-6-deficient mice immunized with myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein.J. Neuroimmunol.105, 120–123 (2000)
Eugster, H. P. et al. Superantigen overcomes resistance of IL-6-deficient mice towards MOG-induced EAE by a TNFR1 controlled pathway.Eur. J. Immunol.31, 2302–2312 (2001)
Acknowledgements
We thank R. A. Sobel for histological analysis of CNS tissues from mice, D. Kozoriz for cell sorting, and A. Jäger for technical assistance. This work was supported by grants from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the National Institutes of Health, JDRF Center for Immunological Tolerance at Harvard and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
Author information
Estelle Bettelli, Yijun Carrier and Wenda Gao: *These authors contributed equally to this work
Authors and Affiliations
Center for Neurologic Diseases, Brigham and Women's Hospital,
Estelle Bettelli, Yijun Carrier, Thomas Korn, Howard L. Weiner & Vijay K. Kuchroo
Transplant Research Center, Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Massachusetts, 02115, USA
Wenda Gao & Terry B. Strom
Center for Neurologic Diseases, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, 65 Landsdowne Street, Massachusetts, 02139, USA
Mohamed Oukka
- Estelle Bettelli
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
- Yijun Carrier
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
- Wenda Gao
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
- Thomas Korn
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
- Terry B. Strom
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
- Mohamed Oukka
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
- Howard L. Weiner
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
- Vijay K. Kuchroo
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
Corresponding authors
Correspondence toMohamed Oukka orVijay K. Kuchroo.
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
Reprints and permissions information is available atnpg.nature.com/reprintsandpermissions. The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Figure 1
Induction of Th-IL-17 cells by activation of naive CD4+ T cells with plate bound anti-CD3 plus anti-CD28 in the presence of TGF-β and IL-6. (PDF 462 kb)
Supplementary Figure 2
IL-6 deficient mice are resistant to the development of EAE and fail to generate Th-IL-17 cells. (PDF 520 kb)
Supplementary Figure Legends
Text to accompany the above Supplementary Figures (DOC 20 kb)
Supplementary Table 1
Histological Analysis of the CNS from 2D2 and 2D2xTg TGF-b with EAE (XLS 17 kb)
Supplementary Methods
This file contains additional details on the methods used in this study. (DOC 30 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bettelli, E., Carrier, Y., Gao, W.et al. Reciprocal developmental pathways for the generation of pathogenic effector TH17 and regulatory T cells.Nature441, 235–238 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04753
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue date:
Share this article
Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:
Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.
Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative
This article is cited by
Factors associated with immunological non-response after ART initiation: a retrospective observational cohort study
- Heping Zhao
- Anping Feng
- Huachun Zou
BMC Infectious Diseases (2024)
CD4+ T cell immunity is dependent on an intrinsic stem-like program
- Dawei Zou
- Zheng Yin
- Wenhao Chen
Nature Immunology (2024)
IL-6 inhibition prevents costimulation blockade-resistant allograft rejection in T cell-depleted recipients by promoting intragraft immune regulation in mice
- Moritz Muckenhuber
- Konstantinos Mengrelis
- Thomas Wekerle
Nature Communications (2024)
Oleic acid availability impacts thymocyte preprogramming and subsequent peripheral Treg cell differentiation
- Liangyu Lin
- Mingyuan Hu
- Ying Wang
Nature Immunology (2024)
RRP8, associated with immune infiltration, is a prospective therapeutic target in hepatocellular carcinoma
- Kai You
- Xingxing Du
- Huitao Fan
Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology (2024)


