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Human TH17 Cells

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TH17 Cells in Health and Disease

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Abstract

CD4+ T helper (TH) lymphocytes represent a heterogeneous population of cells that play an essential role in adaptive immunity. In addition to type 1 (TH1) and type 2 (TH2) cells, a third subset of CD4+ TH effector cells have recently been discovered and named as type 17 (TH17), because of its unique ability to produce interleukin (IL)-17. Studies in humans have demonstrated the plasticity of TH17 cells and their possibility to shift to cells producing IL-17A and IFN-γ or IL-17A and IL-4. The plasticity of TH17 to TH1 cells has recently been confirmed in mice, where it has been found that TH17 cells are pathogenic only after their shifting to TH1 cells. Human TH17 are also different from murine TH17 cells because all of them express CD161. They exclusively originate from CD161+ precursors present in umbilical cord blood and newborn thymus after their culturing in presence of IL-1β plus IL-23, and whereas TGF-β is not critical, it plays an indirect role in fostering their development.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, University of Florence, Viale Morgagni 85, Firenze, 50134, Italy

    Sergio Romagnani

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  1. Francesco Annunziato
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  2. Lorenzo Cosmi
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  3. Francesco Liotta
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  4. Enrico Maggi
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  5. Sergio Romagnani
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Correspondence to Sergio Romagnani .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. King's College London, Department of Nephrology and Transplanta, Guy's Hospital, London, WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom

    Shuiping Jiang

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Annunziato, F., Cosmi, L., Liotta, F., Maggi, E., Romagnani, S. (2011). Human TH17 Cells. In: Jiang, S. (eds) TH17 Cells in Health and Disease. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9371-7_12

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