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Hoffmann, R. A wiki for the life sciences where authorship matters. Nature Genetics (2008)
 
 
 

Acetylcholine-synthesizing T cells relay neural signals in a vagus nerve circuit.

Neural circuits regulate cytokine production to prevent potentially damaging inflammation. A prototypical vagus nerve circuit, the inflammatory reflex, inhibits tumor necrosis factor-α production in spleen by a mechanism requiring acetylcholine signaling through the α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor expressed on cytokine-producing macrophages. Nerve fibers in spleen lack the enzymatic machinery necessary for acetylcholine production; therefore, how does this neural circuit terminate in cholinergic signaling? We identified an acetylcholine-producing, memory phenotype T cell population in mice that is integral to the inflammatory reflex. These acetylcholine-producing T cells are required for inhibition of cytokine production by vagus nerve stimulation. Thus, action potentials originating in the vagus nerve regulate T cells, which in turn produce the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, required to control innate immune responses.[1]

References

  1. Acetylcholine-synthesizing T cells relay neural signals in a vagus nerve circuit. Rosas-Ballina, M., Olofsson, P.S., Ochani, M., Valdés-Ferrer, S.I., Levine, Y.A., Reardon, C., Tusche, M.W., Pavlov, V.A., Andersson, U., Chavan, S., Mak, T.W., Tracey, K.J. Science (2011) [Pubmed]
 
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