Immune Netw.  2023 Feb;23(1):e5. 10.4110/in.2023.23.e5.

Transcriptional and Epigenetic Regulation of Context-Dependent Plasticity in T-Helper Lineages

• Friedman MJ
• Lee H
• Lee JY
• Oh S

• KMID: 2544660
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4110/in.2023.23.e5

Abstract

Th cell lineage determination and functional specialization are tightly linked to the activation of lineage-determining transcription factors (TFs) that bind cis-regulatory elements. These lineage-determining TFs act in concert with multiple layers of transcriptional regulators to alter the epigenetic landscape, including DNA methylation, histone modification and threedimensional chromosome architecture, in order to facilitate the specific Th gene expression programs that allow for phenotypic diversification. Accumulating evidence indicates that Th cell differentiation is not as rigid as classically held; rather, extensive phenotypic plasticity is an inherent feature of T cell lineages. Recent studies have begun to uncover the epigenetic programs that mechanistically govern T cell subset specification and immunological memory. Advances in next generation sequencing technologies have allowed global transcriptomic and epigenomic interrogation of CD4+ Th cells that extends previous findings focusing on individual loci. In this review, we provide an overview of recent genome-wide insights into the transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of CD4+ T cell-mediated adaptive immunity and discuss the implications for disease as well as immunotherapies.

Keyword

Helper T-lymphocytes; Cell plasticity; Epigenomics; Cancer; Inflammation; Cellular microenvironment