title: Immune regulation in the intestine: a balancing act between effector and regulatory T cell responses.
abstract: The immune system in the intestine must respond rapidly to invading pathogens without mounting sustained effector cell responses to the indigenous commensal bacteria. Results from this laboratory using the T cell transfer model of colitis suggest that specialized populations of regulatory T cells control the immune response in the intestine. Regulatory T (Tr) cell activity is enriched within the naturally arising CD4(+) CD25(+) Tr subset that has been shown to prevent a number of inflammatory diseases. CD4(+) CD25(+) Tr cells control intestinal inflammation induced by both innate and adaptive immune responses via IL-10- and TGF-beta-dependent mechanisms. Recent results have shown that CD4(+) CD25(+) Tr cells can cure established colitis, suggesting their utility for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.
authors.affiliation: Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3RE, UK. fiona.powrie@path.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: Fiona
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Powrie
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003092:Colitis / Q000276:immunology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006706:Homeostasis / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D018928:Immunity, Mucosal; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000276:immunology*; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D051379:Mice; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*