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Updated: Mar 16, 2026

Generation of Induced Regulatory T Cells from Primary Human Naïve and Memory T Cells
Published on: April 16, 2012
Memory of Inflammation in Regulatory T Cells
Joris van der Veeken1, Alvaro J Gonzalez2, Hyunwoo Cho2
1Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Immunology Program, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10065, USA.
None:
Eukaryotic cells can "remember" transient encounters with a wide range of stimuli, inducing lasting states of altered responsiveness. Regulatory T (Treg) cells are a specialized lineage of suppressive CD4 T cells that act as critical negative regulators of inflammation in various biological contexts. Treg cells exposed to inflammatory conditions acquire strongly enhanced suppressive function. Using inducible genetic tracing, we analyzed the long-term stability of activation-induced transcriptional, epigenomic, and functional changes in Treg cells. We found that the inflammation-experienced Treg cell population reversed many activation-induced changes and lost its enhanced suppressive function over time. The "memory-less" potentiation of Treg suppressor function may help avoid a state of generalized immunosuppression that could otherwise result from repeated activation.
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