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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2022 Apr 1.
Published in final edited form as: Trends Mol Med. 2021 Jan 8;27(4):302–313. doi: 10.1016/j.molmed.2020.12.007

Box 2:

Major cytokine-based subsets of T cells and macrophages

CD4+ T cell subsets
Positive Negative
Th1 IFNγ, IL2, TNFα IL4
Th2 IL4, IL5, IL9, IL10, IL13, TNFα IFNγ
Treg IL4, IL10, TGFβ
Th9 IL9
Th17 IL9, IL17, IL21, IL22 IL4, IFNγ
Th22 IL22 IL4, IFNγ, IL9, IL17
CD8+ T cell subsets
Tc1 IFNγ, IL2,TNFα IL4, IL5
Tc2 IL5, IL13 IFNγ
Treg IL10, TGFβ
Tc9 IL9, IL10
Tc17 IL17, IL21
Macrophages
M1 TNFα, IL1β, IL6, IL12, IL23, IL-27
M2a IL10, TGFβ
M2b TNFα, IL1β, IL6, IL10
M2c IL10, TGFβ
M2d IL10

Overview of the major subsets of CD3+ T cells and macrophages based on cytokine production based on references [74] and [75]. There are additional subsets of T cells, including γδ T cells and T cell subsets can be further divided on the basis of e.g. their function as memory, effector or effector memory T cells, but this is beyond the scope.