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Updated: Mar 29, 2026

Retroviral Transduction of Helper T Cells as a Genetic Approach to Study Mechanisms Controlling their Differentiation and Function
Published on: November 4, 2016
The Molecular Control of Regulatory T Cell Induction
Annemarie van Nieuwenhuijze1, Adrian Liston1
1Translational Immunology Laboratory, VIB, Leuven, Belgium; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Abstract:
Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are characterized by the expression of the master transcription factor forkhead box P3 (Foxp3). Although Foxp3 expression is widely used as a marker of the Treg lineage, recent data show that the Treg fate is determined by a multifactorial signaling pathway, involving cytokines, nuclear factors, and epigenetic modifications. Foxp3 expression and the Treg phenotype can be acquired by T cells in the periphery, illustrating that the Treg fate is not necessarily conferred during thymic development. The two main Treg populations in vivo, thymic Tregs and peripheral Tregs, differ in the pathways followed for their maturation. This chapter discusses the molecular control of Treg induction, in the thymus as well as the periphery.
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