CD4+CD25+ Regulatory T Cells: Origin, Function and Therapeutic Potential

The vertebrate immune system defends the organism against invading pathogens while at the same time being self-tolerant to the body's own constituents thus preserving its integrity. Multiple mechanisms act in concert to ensure self-tolerance. Additional tolerance mechanisms, collectively referred to as dominant tolerance is by now firmly established. It will offer new conceptual insights and hopefully new tools for the sucessful treatment of autoimmune diseases, improved cancer immunotherapy and transplant survival.