TGF-β Activation and Function in Immunity

Overview

Journal Annu Rev Immunol

Specialty Allergy & Immunology

Date 2013 Dec 10

PMID 24313777

Citations 438

Authors

Mark A Travis

Dean Sheppard

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The cytokine TGF-β plays an integral role in regulating immune responses. TGF-β has pleiotropic effects on adaptive immunity, especially in the regulation of effector and regulatory CD4(+) T cell responses. Many immune and nonimmune cells can produce TGF-β, but it is always produced as an inactive complex that must be activated to exert functional effects. Thus, activation of latent TGF-β provides a crucial layer of regulation that controls TGF-β function. In this review, we highlight some of the important functional roles for TGF-β in immunity, focusing on its context-specific roles in either dampening or promoting T cell responses. We also describe how activation of TGF-β controls its function in the immune system, with a focus on the key roles for members of the integrin family in this process.

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