What a Clinical Hematologist Should Know about T Cells?
Sanjeev Kumar Sharma *
Department of Hemato-Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation, BLK Super Speciality Hospital, New Delhi 110005, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
T cell’s journey begins from the bone marrow and ends in the peripheral tissues by either fighting the infections or residing in the secondary lymphoid organs as memory T cell. Thymus plays most important role in transforming a docile T cell precursor into a warrior. T cell is one of the most important cells in health and disease. Various diseases originate from qualitative or quantitative defects in T cells leading to various inherited and acquired diseases. This simple and short review is focused on the basic understanding and clinical hematologist’s perspective of T cells.
Keywords: T cells, thymus, T cell receptor, autoimmune diseases, severe combined immunodeficiency, hematopoietic stem cell transplant, graft-versus-host disease, leukemia, lymphoma, aging, CAR-T cell, checkpoint inhibitors.