The Curious Case of the Regulatory T-Cell, Part 2

This T-Cell is another example of the body’s many self-check mechanisms which prevent excessive immune reactions, and stop an immune response once the invading organisms have been successfully eliminated. These cells are not naive T-Cells and therefore particular to only one antigen and work to stop NK cell and efferent T-Cells that are still attacking that antigen. This cell went unnoticed for a long time and is still hard to study today because it expresses nearly identical protein markers as the efferent T-Cells (the ones responsible for attacking antigens). Eventually after being isolated, it was noticed that an increase in the number of regulatory T-cells differentiated with respect to the markers on the graft found in the graft’s microenvironment leads to the formation of a protective barrier, offering localized antigen specific immunosuppression (the holy grail of transplantation). Another interesting relationship is how regulatory T-Cells interact with cancer. Cancer can be defined as a failure of the immune system to eliminate a cell which has suffered some kind of damage and now continues to replicate unchecked. One of the main reasons that the body will often not attack the tumor is because it expresses the same protein markers as other healthy cells in the body and so the body thinks that it is attacking itself. It is now thought that regulatory T-cells, in addition to stopping autoimmune disorders, also plays a critical role in protecting the cancer. It was noticed that if there was a high concentration of these types of cells in the cancer microenvironment it usually meant that the cancer prognosis was very poor. 

Research into these cells is still very new and a lot about how they function and how we can control their replication is still unknown. They may, however, prove to be very helpful in both finding a cure for cancer (or at least a way to diminish the effect of it) as well as opening the way for natural antigen specific immunosuppression.