Regulatory T cells in transplantation tolerance

Abstract

The identification and characterization of regulatory T (T(Reg)) cells that can control immune responsiveness to alloantigens have opened up exciting opportunities for new therapies in transplantation. After exposure to alloantigens in vivo, alloantigen-specific immunoregulatory activity is enriched in a population of CD4+ T cells that express high levels of CD25. In vivo, common mechanisms seem to underpin the activity of CD4+CD25+ T(Reg) cells in both naive and manipulated hosts. However, the origin, allorecognition properties and molecular basis for the suppressive activity of CD4+CD25+ T(Reg) cells, as well as their relationship to other populations of regulatory cells that exist after transplantation, remain a matter of debate..