REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Microbial Immunology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1610254
Immunomodulatory Mechanisms of the Gut Microbiota and Metabolites on Regulatory T Cells in Rheumatoid Arthritis
Provisionally accepted
- Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, China
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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease, in which the abnormal activation and proliferation of effector T cells play a pivotal role in its pathogenesis. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are a unique subset of immune cells with immunosuppressive functions, which help to inhibit the differentiation and proliferation of effector T cells in RA and maintain immune tolerance. The interaction between gut microbiota and immune cells has long been a research hotspot in autoimmune diseases. Although gut microbiota metabolites are considered to regulate the host's immune system as a bridge of the gut-joint axis, how gut microbiota acts on immunosuppressive Tregs remains unclear. This review summarizes that how the gut microbiota directly or indirectly (via metabolites) enhances the immunosuppressive capacity of Tregs. This enhancement is primarily achieved through pathways such as promoting the induction of Tregs, upregulating the expression of characteristic transcription factors of Tregs, and facilitating their secretion of anti-inflammatory cytokines, thereby ameliorating the inflammatory microenvironment and subsequently improving autoimmune conditions in RA.
Keywords: Gut Microbiota, Metabolites, Rheumatoid arthritis, regulatory T cells, Autoimmune
Received: 11 Apr 2025; Accepted: 23 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xu, Zhou, Xie, Zhang, Gu, Liu, Liu and Chang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Li Liu, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, China
Mi Liu, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, China
Xiaorong Chang, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.