Abstract

The identification of suppressor T cells as important regulators of basic processes that are designed to maintain tolerance has opened an important area of potential clinical investigation in autoimmunity, graft-versus-host disease and transplantation. However, the field has been limited by an inability to define the antigenic specificities of these cells and by the small numbers of circulating regulatory T cells. Recently, new methods for expanding polyclonal and antigen-specific regulatory T cells have emerged. This article summarizes efforts to exploit regulatory T-cell therapy for the treatment of immunological diseases and poses the question of when and where regulatory T cells will first impact on clinical diseases.

Author affiliations

1. Jeffrey A. Bluestone is at the University of California at San Francisco Diabetes Center, University of California, San Francisco, Box 0540, 513 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, California 94143-0540, USA.
   Email: jbluestdiabetes.ucsf.edu

Published online 18 March 2005

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