T cell regulation for intestinal barrier function

Division Of Basic Sciences - Nci

Investigators

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Abstract

T cells are crucial for regulating mucosal barrier integrity. My lab is studying T cell function and differentiation for intestinal barrier function and mucosal immune responses. We previously identified that the transcription factor Musculin is critical for peripheral Treg cell differentiation by repressing the Th2 program. Our demonstration showed that Treg cells utilize this machinery to fulfill their function during mucosal inflammation (Wu et al., Nat Immunol, 2017). Furthermore, we demonstrated that serum- and glucocorticoid-induced kinase 1 (SGK1) is critical for the reciprocal development of Th17 and Treg cells, modulating intestinal immune homeostasis (Wu et al., Cell Rep, 2018). Recently, we identified an unrecognized silencer (CNS-28) that was responsible for restraining Ifng expression during T cell responses for intestinal immune quiescence (Cui et al., Immunity, 2023). We also found that a cysteine proteinase, Cathepsin W (CTSW), restrains peripheral Treg cells for mucosal immune quiescence in the gut (Li et al., Sci Adv, 2023). Our work reveals how intrinsic and extrinsic cues regulate T cell function within different mucosal surfaces.