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Summary: There is accumulating evidence that T-cell-mediated dominant control of self-reactive T-cells contributes to the maintenance of immunologic self-tolerance and its alteration can cause autoimmune disease. Efforts to delineate such a regulatory T-cell population have revealed that CD25 cells in the CD4 population in normal naive animals bear the ability to prevent autoimmune disease in vivo and, upon antigenic stimulation, suppress the activation/proliferation of other T cells in vitro. The CD25 CD4 regulatory T cells, which are naturally anergic and suppressive, appear to be produced by the normal thymus as a functionally distinct subpopulation of T cells. They play critical roles not only in preventing autoimmunity but also in controlling tumor immunity and transplantation tolerance.

(C) 2001 Munksgaard International Publishers Ltd.