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IFN-alpha and IFN-beta: a link between immune memory and chronic inflammation
A N Akbar1, J M Lord, M Salmon
1Department of Clinical Immunology, Royal Free and University College Medical School, Hampstead, London, UK. akbar@rfhsm.ac.uk
Immunology Today
|June 29, 2000
Abstract:
The majority of expanded T cells generated during an immune response are cleared by apoptosis. Prevention of death in some activated T cells enables the persistence of a memory T-cell pool. Here, observations that IFN-alpha and IFN-beta inhibit activated T-cell apoptosis are described. Although this enables memory T cells to persist without antigen, excessive IFN-alpha or IFN-gamma secretion might lead to chronic inflammation.