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Holistic Systems Biology Approaches to Molecular Mechanisms of Human Helper T Cell Differentiation to Functionally Distinct Subsets
Author(s) -
Chen Z.,
Lönnberg T.,
Lahesmaa R.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.934
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1365-3083
pISSN - 0300-9475
DOI - 10.1111/sji.12071
Subject(s) - biology , immune system , cellular differentiation , t helper cell , systems biology , computational biology , t cell , microbiology and biotechnology , immunology , genetics , gene
Current knowledge of helper T cell differentiation largely relies on data generated from mouse studies. To develop therapeutical strategies combating human diseases, understanding the molecular mechanisms how human naïve T cells differentiate to functionally distinct T helper ( T h) subsets as well as studies on human differentiated T h cell subsets is particularly valuable. Systems biology approaches provide a holistic view of the processes of T helper differentiation, enable discovery of new factors and pathways involved and generation of new hypotheses to be tested to improve our understanding of human T h cell differentiation and immune‐mediated diseases. Here, we summarize studies where high‐throughput systems biology approaches have been exploited to human primary T cells. These studies reveal new factors and signalling pathways influencing T cell differentiation towards distinct subsets, important for immune regulation. Such information provides new insights into T cell biology and into targeting immune system for therapeutic interventions.