IMMUNE REGULATION - A NEW ROLE FOR THE CD8(+) T-CELL

During an immune response, peripheral T cells develop into functionally distinct subpopulations that effect cell-mediated immunity and regulate humoral immune responses through the secretion of specific cytokines. Recent data suggest that CD8(+) T cells, which have long been regarded simply as cytotoxic cells, play a more active role in the regulation of the immune response. in this article, Mike Kemeny and colleagues suggest that there are functionally distinct subsets of CD8(+) T cells that produce different combinations of cytokines and appear to play an important part in determining the pattern of cytokines produced by CD4(+) T cells and the isotype of immunoglobulins expressed by B cells.