Natural and adaptive immune cell-based therapies in autoimmunity

Recent studies have raised great interest in the modulation of autoimmune responses by manipulation of immunoregulatory cells. Several lymphocyte subpopulations responsible for the induction and maintenance of immune tolerance have been extensively studied, and much has been learned about their properties. Lately, a series of attempts to harness the immunoregulatory activities of these cells for therapeutic purposes has proven successful in preclinical studies. The development of new strategies for the expansion of glycolipid-induced activation of NKT cells and antigen-specific regulatory T cells represent examples that have generated considerable interest and that are leading to the development of immunoregulatory cell-based approaches translating the findings from the bench to the bedside. This review highlights the advances, obstacles and limitations of these studies and critically discusses the most recent findings in this rapidly expanding field.