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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Sep 1.
Published in final edited form as: Free Radic Biol Med. 2018 Mar 7;125:36–43. doi: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2018.03.004

Figure 1. Metabolic reorganization favors reductive conditions in T cells.

Figure 1

Healthy T cells undergoing activation have high energy and biosynthetic needs. They upregulate glucose import and glycolysis, driving mitochondrial activity and ROS production. T cells from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) prefer shunting of glucose into the pentose phosphate pathway, thus reducing mitochondrial ROS production and enhancing NADPH generation. The outcome is a reduction of ATP and an intracellular milieu depleted of ROS. ROS, reactive oxygen species; ATP, adenosine triphosphate; NADPH, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate