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Updated: May 20, 2026

Regulatory T cells: Therapeutic Potential for Treating Transplant Rejection and Type I Diabetes
Published on: August 20, 2007
T regulatory cell therapy in transplantation: stability, localization and functional specialization
Katherine G MacDonald1, Paul C Orban, Megan K Levings
1Department of Surgery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Regulatory T cells (Tregs) hold promise for transplantation tolerance by reducing immunosuppression. Optimizing Treg function and survival post-transfer is crucial for successful cellular therapy in vivo.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Cellular Therapy
- Transplantation Science
Background:
- Regulatory T cells (Tregs) offer potential for inducing alloantigen-specific tolerance in transplantation.
- Expanding therapeutic numbers of Tregs is now feasible, shifting focus to their in vivo behavior.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the in vivo behavior of Tregs after cellular therapy.
- To understand Treg trafficking, survival, and functional specialization for transplantation tolerance.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of Treg trafficking mechanisms, including chemokine receptor expression.
- Evaluation of Treg survival and function under immunosuppressive conditions.
- Review of experimental data on adjunctive treatments to support Treg viability and function.
Main Results:
- Tregs require proper trafficking and sustained viability for effective immune regulation.
- Functionally specialized Treg subsets exist, influencing their migration and suppressive capabilities.
- Treg plasticity may be less of a concern than previously thought; adjunctive treatments can enhance Treg support.
Conclusions:
- Current preclinical models do not fully replicate human Treg use in transplantation.
- Better models are needed to optimize in vivo human Treg function for inducing transplantation tolerance.
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Published on: August 12, 2017
08:20In Vitro Differentiation of Human CD4+FOXP3+ Induced Regulatory T Cells (iTregs) from Naïve CD4+ T Cells Using a TGF-β-containing Protocol
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