Trends Immunol. 2026 Jan 7:S1471-4906(25)00314-X. doi: 10.1016/j.it.2025.12.006. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Insights into T-cell biology in the central nervous system (CNS) have evolved from early neuroinflammatory models demonstrating the pathogenic potential of autoreactive T cells to recent human studies defining resident T-cell populations in the healthy and diseased brain. We here discuss advances in postmortem brain tissue processing, flow cytometry, and transcriptional profiling revealing that human brain CD8⁺ and CD4⁺ T cells are tissue-resident memory T cells with distinct phenotypes shaped by CNS borders and parenchymal niches. These findings refine our understanding of CNS immune surveillance and provide a framework for dissecting T-cell contributions to multiple sclerosis.

PMID:41507008 | DOI:10.1016/j.it.2025.12.006