RESUMEN
Studies demonstrated that natural killer T (NKT) cells are involved in the diverse immunomodulatory responses.But the mechanism that NKT cells regulate pathogenic T helper cells (Th) are still unclear.Recent researches found that Th17 cells are associated with a variety of autoimmune disease and play a crucial role in autoimmune diseases,which is very different from previous thesis that Th1 and Th2 are the key factors in the immune response in the patients with autoimmune disease.Studies both in vitro and in vivo also documented that invariant NKT cells (iNKT) inhibit the differentiation of CD4+ T cells toward Th1 and Th17 cells at the different mechanisms.The concept of NKT cells,the regulation of NKT cells to Th1 and Th17 cells in the autoimmune diseases were reviewed.