on July 8, 2009
Production of interleukin 22 but not interleukin 17 by a subset of human skin-homing memory T cells
Nature Immunology
Published online: 5 July 2009
Thomas Duhen, Rebekka Geiger, David Jarrossay, Antonio Lanzavecchia, Federica Sallusto
Abstract
Interleukin 22 (IL-22) is a cytokine produced by the TH-17 lineage of helper T cells and NK-22 subset of natural killer cells that acts on epithelial cells and keratinocytes and has been linked to skin homeostasis and inflammation. Here we characterize a population of human skin-homing memory CD4+ T cells that expressed the chemokine receptors CCR10, CCR6 and CCR4 and produced IL-22 but neither IL-17 nor interferon- (IFN-). Clones isolated from this population produced IL-22 only and had low or undetectable expression of the TH-17 and T helper type 1 (TH1) transcription factors RORt and T-bet. The differentiation of T cells producing only IL-22 was efficiently induced in naive T cells by plasmacytoid dendritic cells in an IL-6- and tumor necrosis factor–dependent way. Our findings delineate a previously unknown subset of human CD4+ effector T cells dedicated to skin pathophysiology.
