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Science 10 June 2005:
Vol. 308. no. 5728, pp. 1563 - 1565
DOI: 10.1126/science.1114167
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Perspectives

IMMUNOLOGY:
Opposites Attract in Differentiating T Cells

Mark Bix, Sunhwa Kim, Anjana Rao

Depending on specific cues from the pathogen they are exposed to, progenitor T cells differentiate into T helper 1 (TH1) or T helper 2 (TH2) cells. Like other antagonistic cell differentiation pathways, TH1 and TH2 differentiation are mutually exclusive, with positive regulators of one pathway acting as negative regulators of the opposing pathway. In their Perspective, Bix et al. describe new data on how direct connections between elements in the two pathways might drive positive and negative crosstalk.

M. Bix is in the Department of Immunology, University of Washington School of Medicine, 1959 N.E. Pacific Street, HSC I6071, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. E-mail: arao{at}cbr.med.harvard.edu. S. Kim and A. Rao are in the Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, and the CBR Institute for Biomedical Research, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)