Inflammation Puts Immune System in a TRANCE

Munster, Germany –

The concept of immunological tolerance is paramount to stem cell
therapeutic applications. Specifically, the ability to induce
tolerance would allow for use of allogeneic stem cell therapeutics
using "off-the shelf" cell lines that are well characterized and
standardized for induction of specific biological activities.

Tolerance induction is maintained by many mechanisms, one major one is
a type of T cell called "T regulatory cell" which possesses a CD4,
CD25 positive phenotype. In a recent paper (Loser et al. Epidermal
RANKL controls regulatory T-cell numbers via activation of dendritic
cells. Nat Med. 2006 Dec;12(12):1372-9) it was reported that the
cytokine RANKL is produced by skin cells during inflammation and UV
exposure. The production of RANKL in response to these stimuli is
associated with upregulation of T regulatory cell activity. This
paper discusses a new way of generating T regulatory cells.