Advances in ex vivo expansion and immunotherapy application of regulatory T cells / 中国实验血液学杂志

ABSTRACT

CD4+ CD25+ regulatory T cells (Treg) play a fundamental role in the establishment and maintenance of immune tolerance. In a some of experimental models, it was found that Tregs can quench autoimmune diseases, maintain allogeneic transplants, and prevent allergic diseases. A major obstacle to their clinical application is related to their definitive phenotype and very limited number of these cells in peripheral circulation, no more than 5%-10% of total CD4+ T cells. Recent progress of technologies for Treg sorting with multicolor flow cytometry and immuno-absorbing columns has overcome these obstacles, and opened the doors to the clinical application of Treg. This review highlight the characteristics of Treg, describe the current information of cell sorting and ex vivo expansion techniques, and outline the adoptive transfer experiments and clinical trials of immunotherapy that have been developed in recent years. It is foreseeable that Treg adoptive transfusion will be a promising immunosuppressive therapy.