background: patients with rheumatoid arthritis (ra) suffer from wide ranges of autoimmune reactions in joints. the mechanism of which is generally unknown and maybe associated with treg deregulation. objective: to compare the frequency of ntregs in peripheral blood of patients with active rheumatoid disease with healthy individuals. methods: twenty five newly diagnosed patients with active ra d...

OBJECTIVES To research the effects of transplanting mesenchymal stem cells on the development of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis and the mechanism behind it. MATERIALS AND METHODS An experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis animal model was induced by injection of the MOG peptide, and mesenchymal stem cell injection was done 20 and 22 days after experimental autoimmune encephalomye...

BACKGROUND It has been reported that human FOXP3(+) CD4 Tregs express GARP-anchored surface latency-associated peptide (LAP) after activation, based on the use of an anti-human LAP mAb. Murine CD4 Foxp3(+) Tregs have also been reported to express surface LAP, but these studies have been hampered by the lack of suitable anti-mouse LAP mAbs. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We generated anti-mous...

CD4+CD25+ regulatory T (Tr) cells are critical in regulating the immune response and thereby play an important role in the defense against infection and control of autoimmune diseases. Our previous studies demonstrated the involvement of autoimmune responses in periodontitis. The aim of this study was to identify CD4+CD25+ Tr cells in periodontitis tissues and compare them with those in gingivi...

BACKGROUND In myasthenia gravis (MG) patients, the dysfunction of CD4(+)CD25(+) regulatory T cells (CD4(+)CD25(+) Tregs) may be one of the important pathogenesis of MG. Currently, the role of IFN-γ in autoimmune diseases is still controversial and needs further exploration. In this study, whether IFN-γ can induce CD4(+)CD25(-) T cells into CD4(+)CD25(+) Tregs in MG in vitro was investigated sys...

CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ regulatory T cells are decreased in patients infected with HIV and have been shown to be critical in mediating Ag tolerance in the lung. Because a subset of Pneumocystis-infected individuals develop substantial lung injury, which can be modeled in immune reconstituted scid mice, we used mouse models of Pneumocystis carinii to investigate the role of regulatory T cells in opportu...

Although tuberculous pleurisy (TP) presumably involves a hypersensitivity reaction, there is limited evidence indicating overreactive effector responses of γδ T cells and αβ T cells and their interrelation with Foxp3(+) Tregs in pleural and other compartments. We found that TP induced reciprocal representations of Foxp3(+) Tregs and Mtb phosphoantigen-specific Vγ2Vδ2 T cells in different anatom...

BACKGROUND The immunosuppressive drug rapamycin (RAPA) promotes the expansion of CD4(+) CD25(high)Foxp3(+) regulatory T cells via mechanisms that remain unknown. Here, we studied expansion, IL-2R-gamma chain signaling, survival pathways and resistance to apoptosis in human Treg responding to RAPA. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS CD4(+)CD25(+) and CD4(+)CD25(neg) T cells were isolated from PBMC...

BACKGROUND & AIMS Foxp3(+) T-regulatory cells (Tregs) maintain intestinal homeostasis under conditions of continuous challenge with inflammatory microbes. However, plasticity of the Treg population under certain conditions has been reported; Foxp3(+) Tregs can be converted to Foxp3(-) CD4(+) T cells. METHODS We used mice with a T cell-induced colitis model to study the regulatory role of type...

IL-2 and TGF-beta both have important roles in the induction and maintenance of immunologic tolerance, but whether these cytokines act separately or together to achieve this effect is poorly understood. Although others have reported that IL-2 can directly enhance forkhead box protein P3 (Foxp3) transcription factor expression by natural CD4(+)CD25(+) regulatory T cells, in this study, we report...