T cell

A T cell is a type of lymphocyte, a white blood cell. T-cells play an important role in the immune system. They attack infected cells, foreign cells, and cancer cells and completely destroy them. This stops viruses or cancer from spreading to healthy cells.

The "T" in T cell stands for thymus. The thymus is where T cells mature.

Types

• Cytotoxic T cells (T_c cells)

• Helper T cells, (T_h cells)

• Regulatory T cells (T_reg cells), used to be called suppressor T cells

• Natural Killer T cells (NKT cells)

• γδ T cells

Related pages

• Major histocompatibility complex

Other websites

• Janeway, Charles A. et al. 2001. Immunobiology. 5th ed, New York and London: Garland. [1]
• The Immune System (PDF)
• (Successful!) Treatment of metastatic melanoma with autologous CD4+ T cells against NY-ESO-1 Archived 2010-01-05 at the Wayback Machine