E3 ubiquitin ligases in T-cell tolerance

Abstract

The immune system uses several mechanisms of central and peripheral tolerance in order to prevent the activation of T lymphocytes toward self-antigens. Although the importance of immune self-tolerance has been established for a long time, some essential cellular and molecular mechanisms of T-cell tolerance have only been recently revealed. Once thought to be a recycling system, protein ubiquitylation by E3 ligases has now emerged as a regulated and crucial modulator of immune responses, and more importantly as a key signaling pathway involved in T-cell tolerance. In this review, we highlight our current understanding of the transcriptional and molecular signaling mechanisms involved in ubiquitylation-mediated T-cell tolerance. © 2009 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.