IMR Press / FBL / Volume 8 / Issue 6 / DOI: 10.2741/1164

Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Article

Regulatory CD4+CD25+T cells in prevention of allograft rejection

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1 Harrison Department of Surgical Research, Department of Surgery, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2003, 8(6), 968–981; https://doi.org/10.2741/1164
Published: 1 September 2003
Abstract

Long-term survival of transplanted organs currently requires chronic immunosuppressive treatment of recipients. While the efficacy of these therapies is satisfactory, their toxicity to host tissues and non-specific inhibition of the immune response are disadvantageous. The ideal in transplantation is a situation of donor-specific unresponsiveness, but agents capable of effecting specific tolerance to transplanted tissues have been elusive. Accumulating evidence suggests that immunoregulatory CD4+CD25+T cells are essential in regulating the immune response to self and foreign antigen. As these cells are capable of suppressing the alloresponse, they represent a potentially invaluable tool for prolonging survival of allografts. In this report, we summarize studies characterizing regulatory T cells and addressing their ability to extend allograft survival. While the capacity of this population to promote allograft tolerance has been demonstrated, many questions remain to be answered before their potential for clinical applicability can be fully defined. Despite this, it is clear from initial studies that regulatory T cells represent an exciting avenue for further investigation in the quest to induce donor-specific unresponsiveness.

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