{"doi":"10.4049/jimmunol.210.supp.229.15","title":"CD8+Helios+ T cells: A unique functional T cell subpopulation?","abstract":"Abstract The zinc finger protein, Helios, is a member of the Ikaros transcription factor family and is expressed in CD4+T cells, CD8+T cells and in some NK cells in both mice and humans. While it has been found to have a role in the homeostasis and suppressive function of CD4+Foxp3+T regulatory cells (Treg), its function in CD8+ T cells and NK cells is not well characterized. We have demonstrated that ~10–40% of CD8+ T cells from normal donors express Helios. Expression of Helios in CD8+ appears to be downregulated with TCR stimulation alone but is maintained in the presence of excess IL-2 signaling. Thus far, extensive flow cytometry studies have failed to show a correlation between Helios expression and any other surface or intracellular markers. Mouse CD8+Helios+Ly-49+ T cells have been reported to inhibit the activation of B cells in germinal centers and have been claimed to be the CD8+ counterpart to CD4+Treg. While these studies have been performed in mice, there is very little data to suggest that human CD8+Helios+ T cells exhibit T suppressor function. In humans, the killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs), a family of transmembrane glycoproteins, are said to be the functional equivalent of the Ly49 proteins. KIR+CD8+T cells have previously been said to highly express Helios and have a function in autoimmune conditions. Data we have obtained from a CITE-seq analysis has shown that Heliosexpression in CD8s is highly correlated with many NK-cell associated markers. This, along with data showing that these cells produce cytotoxic effector molecules, leads us to speculate that these cells have a role in immune suppression via cytotoxic killing of self-activated immune cells. This work was supported by the Intramural Research Program of NIAID, NIH.","journal":"The Journal of Immunology","year":2023,"id":410195,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9591,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":321383,"name":"Ethan M. Shevach","orcid":"0000-0003-1607-4664","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1059976,"name":"Madalyn Jones","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:21:31.144858Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}