T helper17 (Th17) lymphocytes represent a third arm of the CD4+ T-cell effector responses, in addition to Th1 and Th2 cells. Th17 cells have been found to exhibit high plasticity because they rapidly shift into the Th1 phenotype in inflammatory sites. In humans, Keywords: CD161 r IL4I1 r RORC r Th17 Th1 cells derived from Th17 cells express CD161, whereas classic Th1 cells do not; these Th17-derived Th1 cells have been termed nonclassic Th1 cells. In this study, we examined similarities and differences between classic and nonclassic human Th1 cells by assessing a panel of T-cell clones, as well as CD161Introduction CD4 + T helper (Th) cells can be classified into lineages on the basis of cytokine production, the expression of specific transcription factors, and the immunological function they mediate: Th1 cells, which express the transcription factor T-box expressed in T cells (T-bet) and secrete IFN-γ, protect the host against intracellular infections; Th2 cells, which express GATA-3 and secrete IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13, mediate host defense against helminths [1,2]. Recently, additional subsets that preferentially produce distinct cytokines Correspondence: Prof. Francesco Annunziato e-mail: f.annunziato@dmi.unifi.it have been described. The most studied subset includes cells that selectively produce IL-17A (Th17 cells), express the transcription factor RAR-related orphan receptor (ROR)γt, and protect the host against infection with extracellular pathogens [3,4]. Human Th17 cells are, at least partially, different from murine Th17 cells [5,6]. Indeed, human Th17 cells express not only distinctive Th17 molecules, such as IL-23 receptor (IL-23R) and RORC, but also those typical of the Th1 phenotype such as IL-12Rβ2 and T-bet [6]. Moreover, we have previously discovered a subset of human Th17 cells that are also able to produce IFN-γ, named Th17/Th1 * These authors contributed equally to this work. To investigate the main features of these two different Th1 subsets, CD4+ CD161 + and CD4 + CD161 − T-cell populations were purified from peripheral blood (PB) of healthy human subjects and then cloned under limiting dilution conditions. As expected, clones derived from the CD4 + CD161 + T-cell fraction exhibited a Th17, a Th17/Th1, or a Th1 phenotype, whereas virtually all clones generated from the CD4 + CD161 − T-cell subset had a Th1 phenotype and none of them was able to produce IL-17A ( Fig. 1A and B). CD161 − Th1 clones were considered as classic Th1 cells, whereas CD161 + Th1 cells were considered as nonclassic (Th17-derived) cells. Transcription factorsThe expression of the transcription factors T-bet and RORC by classic and nonclassic Th1, as well as by Th17 or Th17/Th1, cells were compared by assessing 20 randomly selected T-cell clones from each phenotype with quantitative RT-PCR. In agreement with previously published data [15,16], the Th1-related transcription factor T-bet was found to be expressed by all four types of T-cell clones analyzed, reaching the highest mRNA levels in both classic and nonclassic-Th1 c...

This study provides the first evidence that human ILC2s can express CD154 and stimulate the production of IgE by B lymphocytes through IL-25/IL-33 stimulation or TLR triggering.

It is well accepted that Th17 cells are a highly plastic cell subset that can be easily directed toward the Th1 phenotype in vitro and also in vivo during inflammation. However, there is an ongoing debate regarding the reverse plasticity (conversion from Th1 to Th17). We show here that ectopic ROR-γt expression can restore or initiate IL-17 expression by non-classic or classic Th1 cells, respectively, while common pro-Th17 cytokine cocktails are ineffective. This stability of the Th1 phenotype is at least partially due to the presence of a molecular machinery governed by the transcription factor Eomes, which promotes IFN-γ secretion while inhibiting the expression of ROR-γt and IL-17. By using a mouse model of T cell-dependent colitis we demonstrate that Eomes controls non-classic Th1 cell development also in vivo and promotes their pathogenic potential. Eomes expression associates to a highly inflammatory phenotype also in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Indeed, it favors the acquisition of a cytotoxic signature, and promotes the development of IFN-γ GM-CSF cells that have been described to be pathogenic in chronic inflammatory disorders.

Th17-derived Th1 lymphocytes, termed nonclassic, differ from classic Th1 cells because of the presence of retinoic acid orphan receptor (ROR)C2 and the surface expression of CD161 and CCR6. We demonstrate in this article that nonclassic Th1 cells, like Th17 cells, have a marked RORC2 and IL17A demethylation, whereas classic Th1 cells exhibit a complete methylation of these genes. The analysis of RORC2 DNA methylation in the CD4+CD161+ and CD4+CD161− naive Th subsets from umbilical cord blood surprisingly revealed comparable hypermethylation levels. PCR analysis at the single-cell level revealed that RORC2 mRNA was expressed by none of the CD4+CD161− and present only in a minority of CD4+CD161+ naive Th cells. These findings provide two important novel observations on the physiology of human Th17 cells: 1) they confirm at the epigenetic level the origin of nonclassic Th1 cells from Th17 cells, also identifying in the RORC2 and IL17A methylation status a novel tool for their distinction from classic Th1 cells, and 2) they demonstrate that RORC2-expressing cells are only a minority in the subset of CD4+CD161+ naive Th cells, which are known to contain all Th17 cell precursors.

Background:Cancer is a multifactorial disease not only restricted to transformed epithelium, but also involving cells of the immune system and cells of mesenchymal origin, particularly mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Mesenchymal stem cells contribute to blood- and lymph- neoangiogenesis, generate myofibroblasts, with pro-invasive activity and may suppress anti-tumour immunity.Methods:In this paper, we evaluated the presence and features of MSCs isolated from human head neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).Results:Fresh specimens of HNSCC showed higher proportions of CD90+ cells compared with normal tissue; these cells co-expressed CD29, CD105, and CD73, but not CD31, CD45, CD133, and human epithelial antigen similarly to bone marrow-derived MSCs (BM-MSCs). Adherent stromal cells isolated from tumour shared also differentiation potential with BM-MSCs, thus we named them as tumour-MSCs. Interestingly, tumour-MSCs showed a clear immunosuppressive activity on in vitro stimulated T lymphocytes, mainly mediated by indoelamine 2,3 dioxygenase activity, like BM-MSCs. To evaluate their possible role in tumour growth in vivo, we correlated tumour-MSC proportions with neoplasm size. Tumour-MSCs frequency directly correlated with tumour volume and inversely with the frequency of tumour-infiltrating leukocytes.Conclusions:These data support the concept that tumour-MSCs may favour tumour growth not only through their effect on stromal development, but also by inhibiting the anti-tumour immune response.