本次发表的《科学》文章主要解释了Bcl6转录因子对辅助T细胞生长发育的调控作用。
CD4+辅助T细胞的一个基本功能是调节B细胞介导的体液免疫。滤泡辅助性T细胞（T follicular helper ，Tfh）通过细胞因子白介素-6和白介素-21来调节B细胞的功能。在Tfh发挥调节功能的过程中，Bcl6转录因子发挥了重要的作用。
Bcl6转录因子的表达受白介素-6和白介素-21的调控，Bcl6过度表达可诱导Tfh相关的基因表达并抑制其他类型的辅助性T细胞的分化。如果Bcl6缺陷则导致Tfh发育异常，并破坏生发中心的免疫应答，改变其他效应T细胞的表达量。
这些研究结果表明，Bcl6是Tfh细胞发育过程中必不可少的调节因子。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1176676
Bcl6 Mediates the Development of T Follicular Helper Cells
Roza I. Nurieva 1*, Yeonseok Chung 1, Gustavo J. Martinez 1, Xuexian O. Yang 1, Shinya Tanaka 1, Tatyana D. Matskevitch 1, Yi-Hong Wang 1, Chen Dong 1*
1 Department of Immunology, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
A fundamental function of CD4+ helper T (Th) cells is the regulation of B cell–mediated humoral immunity. Development of T follicular helper (Tfh) cells that provide help to B cells is mediated by the cytokines interleukin-6 and interleukin-21, but is independent of Th1, Th2, and Th17 effector cell lineages. Here, we characterize the function of Bcl6, a transcription factor selectively expressed in Tfh cells. Bcl6 expression is regulated by interleukin-6 and interleukin-21. Bcl6 overexpression induced Tfh-related gene expression and inhibited other Th lineage cell differentiation in a DNA binding–dependent manner. Moreover, Bcl6 deficiency in T cells resulted in impaired Tfh cell development, and germinal center reactions, and altered production of other effector T cells subsets. Our data thus illustrate that Bcl6 is required for programming of Tfh cell generation.
