Abstract.
In the past few years it has been become increasingly clear that T cells capable of actively suppressing immune responses are thought to be in part responsible for the maintenance of peripheral self tolerance. In healthy rodents and humans, CD4+ T cells constitutively expressing the interleukin (IL)-2 receptor α-chain (CD25) are able to exert such suppressive function in vitro and in vivo. Despite great efforts in our understanding of the biology of such immunoregulatory T cells, there are still certain points incompletely understood. Although some authors suggest that immunoregulatory cytokines such as IL-10 or transforming growth factor-β are critical for the suppressive effect of these cells, this is controversial and the exact molecular nature and the targets of suppression are largely unknown. Thus far, until regulatory T cells can be used for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes many questions have to be answered. In this review we summarize the current knowledge on the function and properties of this T cell subset and discuss their potential role in human autoimmune or chronic inflammatory diseases.
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
About this article
Cite this article
Frey, O., Bräuer, R. Regulatory T cells: magic bullets for immunotherapy?. Arch. Immunol. Ther. Exp. 54, 33–43 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00005-006-0008-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00005-006-0008-0