CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells: from basic research to potential therapeutic use

Regulatory T cells control immune responses to self- and foreign-antigens and play a major role in maintaining the balance between immunity and tolerance. This article reviews recent key de-velopments in the field of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T (TREG) cells. It presents their charac-teristics and describes their range of activity and mechanisms of action. Some models of diseases triggered by the imbalance between TREG cells and effector pathogenic T cells are described and their potential therapeutic applications in humans are outlined