Asthma Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Asthma, including details on symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, causes, medications.

Potential role of interleukin-10-secreting regulatory T cells in allergy and asthma.

Hawrylowicz CM, O'Garra A

Department of Asthma, Allergy & Respiratory Science, Guy's Hospital, King's College London, London SE1 9RT, UK. catherine.hawrylowicz@kcl.ac.uk

Allergic diseases are caused by aberrant T-helper-2 immune responses in susceptible individuals. Both naturally occurring CD4(+)CD25(+) regulatory T cells and inducible populations of antigen-specific interleukin-10-secreting regulatory T cells inhibit these inappropriate immune responses in experimental models. This article discusses the evidence that regulatory T-cell function might be impaired in allergic and asthmatic disease and that certain therapeutic regimens might function, at least in part, to promote regulatory T-cell generation. Current research strategies seek to exploit these observations to improve the generation of allergen-specific regulatory T-cell populations with the potential to provide the safe and long-term alleviation of disease symptoms.

Published 1 April 2005 in Nat Rev Immunol, 5(4): 271-83.
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