T淋巴细胞抑制急性感染的炎症反应

炎症反应是机体针对损伤因子所产生的防御反应并伴随着红、热、肿、痛的局部临床特征.炎症反应是由多种细胞和细胞因子共同参与的复杂过程,天然免疫细胞(包括吞噬细胞、自然杀伤细胞、巨噬细胞等)是起始和推进炎症反应的重要效应细胞,而获得性免疫细胞如T细胞不仅参与后期炎症反应的发生同时还具有调节早期炎症反应的重要功能.炎症反应本身有利于清除消灭致病因子,液体的渗出可稀释毒素,吞噬搬运坏死组织以利于再生和修复,使致病因子局限在炎症部位而不致蔓延全身.另一方面,过激和长期的炎症反应又会对机体造成损伤.因此,深入研究炎症反应的机制可为治疗炎症所引起的疾病提供新的思路.

T Cells Regulate Initial Inflammatory Responses During Acute Infection

Inflammation is a basic way in which the body reacts to infection, irritation or other injury. The key clinical feature of inflammation is redness, warmth, swelling and pain. A series of immune cells and cytokines are involved in the complicated and interrelated events during inflammation to work together to defend the body. Innate immune cells, including phagocytes, NK cells and dentritic cells, are the main effector cells in initiating an inflammatory response. Adaptive immune cells, for example, T cells which take part in the battle at the later phase of an inflammatory response could also temper the initial inflammatory responses during acute infection. On one hand, hosts rely on inflammatory responses to eliminate the pathogen, control the infection within the local site, and induce the adaptive immune response. However, on the other hand, over-reactive and chronic inflammation can also lead to some diseases. Consequently, the study of the mechanism of inflammation might lead to new treatment for patients with inflammation-related diseases.