Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comment
. 2023 Apr 18;120(16):e2303525120.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.2303525120. Epub 2023 Apr 10.

Acetylcholine-producing CD4 T cells regulate vasculature in humans

Maureen A Cox  1   2
Affiliations
Comment

Acetylcholine-producing CD4 T cells regulate vasculature in humans

Maureen A Cox. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .
No abstract available

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no competing interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Activation of CD4 T cells results in demethylation of the chat locus and expression of chat. (A) In circulating CD4 T cells from healthy donors, the chat promoter is methylated in a REST-dependent manner, preventing chat expression. (B) Activation of CD4 T cells induces downregulation of REST. This downregulation, in combination with phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling, results in demethylation of the chat locus and expression of chat mRNA. (C) Chat-expressing T cells release acetylcholine, which induces vasodilation and improves vascular integrity by signaling through muscarinic acetylcholine receptors on vascular endothelial cells. (D) The presence of these chat-expressing T cells correlates with better organ perfusion in critically ill patients on Veno-Arterial Extracoporeal Life Support (VA-ECLS), possibly by enhancing vasodilation and improving vascular integrity through acetylcholine release in vivo. Figure created with Biorender.com.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment on

  • Cholinergic regulation of vascular endothelial function by human ChAT+ T cells.
    Tarnawski L, Shavva VS, Kort EJ, Zhuge Z, Nilsson I, Gallina AL, Martínez-Enguita D, Heller Sahlgren B, Weiland M, Caravaca AS, Schmidt S, Chen P, Abbas K, Wang FH, Ahmed O, Eberhardson M, Färnert A, Weitzberg E, Gustafsson M, Kehr J, Malin SG, Hult H, Carlström M, Jovinge S, Olofsson PS. Tarnawski L, et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2023 Apr 4;120(14):e2212476120. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2212476120. Epub 2023 Mar 29. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2023. PMID: 36989306 Free PMC article.

References

    1. Cox M. A., et al. , Beyond neurotransmission: Acetylcholine in immunity and inflammation. J. Intern. Med. 287, 120–133 (2020). - PubMed
    1. Fujii T., et al. , Localization and synthesis of acetylcholine in human leukemic T cell lines. J. Neurosci. Res. 44, 66–72 (1996). - PubMed
    1. Tallini Y. N., et al. , BAC transgenic mice express enhanced green fluorescent protein in central and peripheral cholinergic neurons. Physiol. Genom. 27, 391–397 (2006). - PubMed
    1. Rosas-Ballina M., et al. , Acetylcholine-synthesizing T cells relay neural signals in a vagus nerve circuit. Science 334, 98–101 (2011). - PMC - PubMed
    1. Olofsson P. S., et al. , alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (alpha7nAChR) expression in bone marrow-derived non-T cells is required for the inflammatory reflex. Mol Med. 18, 539–543 (2012). - PMC - PubMed

Publication types