Talk:Cytotoxic T cell

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I would like to know about the history of a cytotoxic T cell. I can't find anything on the web!

[edit] CD8+ T cells

If I remember correctly, CD8+ T cells equals cytotoxic T cells. The article is not clear on this point. / Habj 16:34, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

Yes, that is usually correct. I either have, or will make that association. The only problem is (and this is particularly true for CD4+ T cells) that there SOME exceptions to the rule, and this is where service as a general public encyclopedia versus a scientific review comes in. For example, cytotoxic CD4+ T cells do exist, but the incidence of these cells are very rare unless you enter certain disease states. I'm not particularly happy with how this immune page is written; whether that particular page is the best place to place TcR recombination (rather than a dedicated page, since it's a common step for all T cells), and information on how CD8+ T cells actually activate (versus what they do after they activate) is very lacking. The page is also not un-educated person friendly at all. There is no importance mentioned in how helper T cells are essential for their initial activation, or some of the safeguards the immune system has to prevent auto-immunity of cytotoxic T cells (e.g. co-stimulation is absolutely ESSENTIAL aspect in these cells). I could go on. This page was similar to the helper T cell page prior to me almost re-writing the entire page (there are a couple of original fragments, but you'd be lucky to find any more than one). I don't have the energy atm to re-write this page, I'd prefer to reference the helper page before I get stuck into the other immune cell pages.Volantares 12:35, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Discussion of Pathogenesis

The mention of pathogenesis in various disease states is a good idea, although I feel that perhaps the pathogenesis section just needs a good introduction into the generalised role of cytotoxic T cells (i.e. they kill infected cells, but they have also been implicated in the pathogenesis of various illnesses). Is the discussion of the role of platelets in a Hepatitis B infection beginning to deviate from the purpose of this article? Wouldn't that specific result (especially since it isn't in a review) should remain in the pathogenesis section of Hepatitis B? Volantares 10:49, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

all the development can be described with all T lympocytes in the T cell article. Seems pointless to repeat it slightly differently in lots of places.

[edit] AIDS Immunity

I think it is worth noting that this cell (particularly CD8 T Cells) are important in the small, very rare, population of people who have HIV but are immune (or at least very highly protected from) AIDS. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.205.70.254 (talk) 05:15, 29 March 2007 (UTC).