IL-7 signaling in dendritic cells regulates CD4+ T cell homeostatic proliferation and CD4+ T cell niche size

Interleukin 7 (IL-7) and T cell receptor (TCR) signals have been proposed to be the primary drivers of homeostatic T cell proliferation. However, it is not known why CD4+ T cells undergo less efficient homeostatic proliferation than CD8+ T cells. Here we showed that systemic IL-7 concentrations rise during lymphopenia due to diminished IL-7 utilization, but that IL-7 signaling on IL-7Rα+ dendritic cells (DCs) in lymphopenic settings paradoxically diminishes CD4+ T cell homeostatic proliferation. This effect is mediated, at least in part, by IL-7-mediated downregulation of MHC class II expression on IL-7Rα+ DCs. These results implicate IL-7Rα+ DCs as regulators of the peripheral CD4+ T cell niche, and indicate that IL-7 signals in DCs prevent uncontrolled CD4+ T cell expansion in vivo.

• Publication year

  2009

• Venue

  Nature Immunology

• Publication date

  2009-01-11

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1038/ni.1695PMCID 2713006
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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