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Updated: Jun 26, 2026

Simultaneous Quantification of Selected Kynurenines Analyzed by Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry in Medium Collected from Cancer Cell Cultures
Published on: May 9, 2020
TGF-beta and kynurenines as the key to infectious tolerance
Maria L Belladonna1, Ciriana Orabona, Ursula Grohmann
1Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Perugia, Via del Giochetto, Perugia 06126, Italy.
Abstract:
The maintenance of self-tolerance is an integral part of the immune surveillance process, in which cytokines act as master regulators of a complex network involving multiple cell types. On such cytokines, transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) exerts a suppressive control over immune reactivity, which so far appears to be mostly confined to the T-cell compartment. Recently, dendritic cells (DCs) have been found to be both an early source and a target of TGF-beta actions. In these cells, autocrine, paracrine and T-cell-derived TGF-beta activates the tolerogenic pathway of tryptophan catabolism - mediated by indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) - resulting in a burst of regulatory kynurenines that contribute to establishing a state of 'infectious tolerance'. Current molecular insights suggest a synergistic potential for TGF-beta and IDO in physiologically or therapeutically opposing human pathologies sustained by over-reacting immune responses.
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