Yamada A, Arakaki R, Saito M, Tsunematsu T, Kudo Y, Ishimaru N. Role of regulatory T cell in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease. World J Gastroenterol 2016; 22(7): 2195-2205 [PMID: 26900284 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i7.2195]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Naozumi Ishimaru, DDS, PhD, Professor, Department of Oral Molecular Pathology, Tokushima University Graduate School, 3-18-15 Kuramoto, Tokushima 770-8504, Japan. ishimaru.n@tokushima-u.ac.jp
Research Domain of This Article
Immunology
Article-Type of This Article
Topic Highlight
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Akiko Yamada, Rieko Arakaki, Masako Saito, Takaaki Tsunematsu, Yasusei Kudo, Naozumi Ishimaru, Department of Oral Molecular Pathology, Tokushima University Graduate School, Tokushima 770-8504, Japan
Author contributions: Yamada A, Arakaki R, Saito M, Tsunematsu T, Kudo Y and Ishimaru N analyzed the literature and wrote a paper.
Supported by Scientific Research No. 24659839 and No. 24689068 from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sport, and Culture of Japan.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest to report.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Naozumi Ishimaru, DDS, PhD, Professor, Department of Oral Molecular Pathology, Tokushima University Graduate School, 3-18-15 Kuramoto, Tokushima 770-8504, Japan. ishimaru.n@tokushima-u.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-88-6337464 Fax: +81-88-6337464
Received: April 28, 2015 Peer-review started: May 5, 2015 First decision: October 14, 2015 Revised: November 11, 2015 Accepted: December 8, 2015 Article in press: December 8, 2015 Published online: February 21, 2016 Processing time: 277 Days and 17.8 Hours
Abstract
Regulatory T (Treg) cells play key roles in various immune responses. For example, Treg cells contribute to the complex pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis during onset or development of that disease. Many animal models of IBD have been used to investigate factors such as pathogenic cytokines, pathogenic bacteria, and T-cell functions, including those of Treg cells. In addition, analyses of patients with IBD facilitate our understanding of the precise mechanism of IBD. This review article focuses on the role of Treg cells and outlines the pathogenesis and therapeutic strategies of IBD based on previous reports.
Core tip: We review the types and functions of regulatory CD4+ T cells (Treg cells) and describe their roles in the pathologies of the inflammatory bowel diseases, i.e., Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. We have paid particular attention to the use of animal models and human studies to elucidate the mechanisms by which Treg cells influence these diseases and have provided an overview of the potential uses of these cells in therapeutic strategies.