Review

T regulatory cells: an overview and intervention techniques to modulate allergy outcome

Subhadra Nandakumar¹ , Christopher WT Miller² and Uday Kumaraguru¹

¹  Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN-37614, USA

²  Division of Allergy and Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN-37614, USA

author email corresponding author email

Clinical and Molecular Allergy 2009, 7:5doi:10.1186/1476-7961-7-5

Published:	12 March 2009

Abstract

Dysregulated immune response results in inflammatory symptoms in the respiratory mucosa leading to asthma and allergy in susceptible individuals. The T helper type 2 (Th2) subsets are primarily involved in this disease process. Nevertheless, there is growing evidence in support of T cells with regulatory potential that operates in non-allergic individuals. These regulatory T cells occur naturally are called natural T regulatory cells (nTregs) and express the transcription factor Foxp3. They are selected in the thymus and move to the periphery. The CD4 Th cells in the periphery can be induced to become regulatory T cells and hence called induced or adaptive T regulatory cells. These cells can make IL-10 or TGF-b or both, by which they attain most of their suppressive activity. This review gives an overview of the regulatory T cells, their role in allergic diseases and explores possible interventionist approaches to manipulate Tregs for achieving therapeutic goals.