Tissue-resident immune cells in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis

Abstract

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease of the central nervous system (CNS) in which genetic and environmental factors contribute to disease progression. Both innate and adaptive immune cells, including T cells, B cells, activated macrophages and microglia, have been identified to be involved in the pathogenesis of MS, leading to the CNS inflammation, neurodegeneration and demyelination. In recent years, there has been considerable progress in understanding the contribution of tissue-resident immune cells in the pathogenesis of MS.

Methods: We performed a keyword-based search in PubMed database. We combined "multiple sclerosis" with keywords, such as tissue-resident memory T cells, microglia to search for relevant literatures in PubMed.

Results and conclusion: In this review, we comprehensively describe the characteristics of tissue-resident memory T cells and microglia, summarize their role in the pathogenesis of MS, and discuss their interaction with other immune cells in the CNS.

Keywords: CNS autoimmune disease; Microglia; Multiple sclerosis; Tissue-resident immune cells; Tissue-resident memory T cells.