Disease mechanisms in rheumatology - Tools and pathways: Multiparameter flow cytometry for discovery of disease mechanisms in rheumatic diseases

摘要

Introduction: In the past decades, our understanding of the various cellular components that function in the immune response has expanded at a rapid pace. The stage was set for dissection of the immune system with the groundbreaking work of Claman et al (1), who defined separate lineages of cooperating bone marrow- and thymic-derived immune cells, and studies by Cantor and Boyce (2), who were the first investigators to use surface markers to define functional T cell subsets. Now, it is recognized that multiple lineages of bone marrow-derived cells and a vast array of lineage-unique subsets play key roles in the immune process, either as direct effector cells or by having an immunoregulatory role.