This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81027004, 30571922) to JW and GL, Hi- Tech Research and Development Program of China (863 program; 2012AA020504) to JW, State Key Laboratory Funding (SKLZZ200808, SKLZZ200820) to JW and GL, and a grant from JDRF (1-2007-551) to WG. The authors acknowledge the kind assistance of Dr Harvey Cantor (Dana-Faber Cancer Institute, USA) for the Qa-1 knockout mice, Thomas FitzGibbon for manuscript editing and Dr Liyan for graph preparation.
The regulatory activities of mouse CD4+Foxp3+ T cells on various immune cells, including NK ceils, have been well documented. Under some conditions, conventional CD4+Foxp3- T cells in the periphery are able to acqu...