Recently, the research team of Professor Cheng Xiang of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine of Union Hospital affiliated to Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology has made important progress in the field of specific immune response of cardiac tissue.
The research results are entitled "A unique population of regulatory T cells in heart potentiates cardiac protection from myocardialial infarction". Published in the international journal Circulation (IF 23.603) on September 28, 2020. The study revealed for the first time the phenotype and functional characteristics of local tissue-specific Tregs of the heart.
Regulatory T cells (Tregs) as classic immunomodulatory cells mainly play a role in suppressing the immune response, and the latest research shows that the local presence of some tissues Tregs - "tissue Tregs", can directly act on parenchymal cells, maintain tissue homeostasis, but the presence or absence of tissue Tregs in the heart and its phenotype and function are still unclear. The team found that local Tregs of myocardial tissue after heart injury have typical "tissue Tregs" characteristics: they are locally enriched in cardiac tissue, mainly from the recruitment of peripheral circulation, and local maintenance depends on the IL-33/ST2 axis; cardiac Tregs have unique transcriptome and TCR characteristics, present a phenotype that promotes injury repair, increases collagen content in the infarct area and promotes collagen maturation through molecules such as Sparc with high expression. The study reveals for the first time the phenotype and functional characteristics of local tissue-specific Tregs of the heart, providing new ideas and targets for Treg-based cardiac immunotherapy.
Xia Ni, Lu Yuzhi and Gu Muyang of the Department of Cardiology, Union Hospital affiliated to Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology are the first authors, and Cheng Xiang is the corresponding author.
Source: Department of Cardiology, Wuhan Union Medical College Hospital
Thesis link: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.046789