engleski

New Markers Of Natural Regulatory T Cells In Humans

Regulatory T cells are subset of T lymphocytes that have major function in maintaining of the peripheral tolerance. They are important in various conditions such as allergy, autoimmune disorders, tumors, infections and in transplantation medicine. Due to the lack of specific markers, phenotypic analysis of natural regulatory T cells in humans requires simultaneous analysis of many surface and intracellular molecules. Ample data generated from recent research on human regulatory T cells suggests several candidates for specific markers in addition to CD4 and CD25. The aim of this study was to establish whether these molecules would be helpful in identification of human regulatory T cells. The new markers investigated in this study were GITR (glucocorticoid induced TNF receptor), which has important role in regulating suppressive activity of regulatory T cells, PD-1 (programmed death 1), involved in processes of cell death and intracellular Foxp3 (forkhead box P3), often considered as a “ master regulatory switch” since it controls the development of regulatory T cells. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells obtained from healthy adults were simultaneously stained with fluorochrome-labeled monoclonal antibodies for new markers of regulatory T cells and subsequently analyzed on a dual laser flow cytometer. Our results showed that the most specific marker for regulatory T cells are Foxp3 and GITR. Following the development and standardization of methods for identification of natural regulatory T cells, we are currently investigating the possible changes in their frequency and function in certain clinical conditions such as allergy and autoimmune disease.

regulatory T cells

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