Journal of Allergy Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 948901, 9 pages doi:10.1155/2012/948901
Review Article
Regulatory T Cells and the Control of the Allergic Response
1Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Cellular Immunology Unit, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa, Avenida Professor Egas Moniz, 1649-028
Lisbon, Portugal
2Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Cellular Immunology Unit, 2781-901 Oeiras,
Portugal
Received 16 June 2012; Accepted 28 August 2012
Academic Editor: Maria Leite-de-Moraes
Copyright © 2012 Ana Agua-Doce and Luis Graca. This is an open access article
distributed under theCreative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
The study of immune regulation and tolerance has been traditionally associated
with self/nonself-discrimination. However, the finding that dominant tolerance,
a model that puts in evidence the active role of regulatory T cells, can develop
to nonself-antigens suggests that the imposition of tolerance can be context
dependent. This paper reviews the emerging field of acquired immune tolerance
to non-self antigens, with an emphasis on the different subsets of induced regulatory
T cells that appear to specialize in specific functional niches.
Such regulatory mechanisms are important in preventing the onset of allergic
diseases in healthy individuals. In addition, it may be possible to take advantage of
these immune regulatory mechanisms for the induction of tolerance in cases
where pathological immune responses are generated to allergens occurring in
nature, but also to other immunogens such as biological drugs developed for medical therapies.
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