Regulatory T cells and immune tolerance.
Regulatory T cells (Tregs) play an indispensable role in maintaining immunological unresponsiveness to self-antigens and in suppressing excessive immune responses deleterious to the host. Tregs are produced in the thymus as a functionally mature subpopulation of T cells and can also be induced from naive T cells in the periphery. Recent research reveals the cellular and molecular basis of Treg development and function and implicates dysregulation of Tregs in immunological disease.
Department of Experimental Pathology, Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan. shimon@frontier.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Shimon
S
Sakaguchi
Tomoyuki
T
Yamaguchi
Takashi
T
Nomura
Masahiro
M
Ono
D000818:Animals; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D017634:Self Tolerance; D050378:T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / Q000276:immunology*; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology