Understanding the life and death of Mucosal-associated invariant T cells

淋巴器官中naïve T细胞的细胞死亡是众所周知的。然而，T细胞只有在激活后才能获得功能，活化的T细胞如何调节其生死尚不清楚。粘膜相关不变性T细胞（mucal -associated Invariant T， MAIT）在非淋巴组织中大量存在，是免疫的关键局部参与者，并且与活化的常规T细胞具有一些特征。该项目旨在确定如何控制MAIT细胞的生存和死亡。它结合了我们开发的在体内追踪MAIT细胞的方法和细胞死亡分析的专业知识。本项目有望阐明控制MAIT细胞存活/死亡的复杂机制，增加我们对活化T细胞死亡机制的基本认识。

Cell death of naïve T cells in lymphoid organs is well-understood. However, T cells only gain their function upon activation, and how activated T cells regulate their life or death remains unclear. Mucosal-associated Invariant T (MAIT) cells are abundant in non-lymphoid tissues as key local players in immunity, and share some features of activated conventional T cells. This project aims to define how MAIT cell survival and death are controlled. It combines methods we developed to track MAIT cells in vivo with expertise in cell death analysis. This project is expected to elucidate the complex mechanisms controlling MAIT cell survival/death and increase our fundamental understanding of cell death mechanisms of activated T cells.