Peripheral T cell tolerance may result from activation-induced cell death [
1], anergy [1], and/or immune response modulation by regulatory T cells [2]
, In mice that express a transgenic receptor specific for peptide 111-119 o
f influenza hemagglutinin presented by Ed class II MHC molecules as well as
hemagglutinin under central of the immunoglobulin-le promoter, we have fou
nd that anergic T cells [3] can also have immunoregulatory function and sec
rete IL-10 [4], In order to obtain information on molecular mechanisms invo
lved in anergy and immunoregulation, we have compared expression levels of
1176 genes in anergic, naive, and recently activated CD4(+) T cells of the
same specificity by gene array analysis. The results provide a plausible ex
planation for the anergic phenotype in terms of proliferation, provide new
information on the surface phenotype of in vivo-generated anergic CD4(+) T
cells, and yield clues with regard to new candidate genes that may be respo
nsible for the restricted cytokine production of in vivo-anergized CD4+ T c
ells. The molecular fingerprints of such T cells should enable the tracking
of this small population in the normal organism and the study of their rol
e in immunoregulation.