REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. T Cell Biology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1612360
Unlocking the Therapeutic Potential of Thymus-Isolated Regulatory T Cells
Provisionally accepted
- 1Center for Regenerative Therapies (CRTD), Center for Molecular and Cellular Bioenginering (CMCB), Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany
- 2DKMS Stem Cell Bank, Dresden, Germany, Dresden, Germany
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Regulatory T cells (Tregs) play a pivotal role in modulating excessive immune responses and maintaining immune homeostasis in humans. Notably, therapeutic strategies employing autologous and allogeneic Tregs have shown promising signs of efficacy in the treatment and prevention of graft versus-host disease (GvHD), transplant rejection and autoimmune diseases. Treg cells are typically obtained from peripheral blood or umbilical cord blood, but the largely antigen-experienced memory state of peripheral blood Tregs and the limited number of Tregs that can be isolated from cord blood remain obstacles. However, recent studies have identified the thymus as a novel and promising source of Tregs, overcoming the abovementioned limitations. Currently, human thymus-isolated regulatory T cells (thyTregs) are being investigated in phase 1/2 clinical trials to assess their safety and efficacy in both autologous and allogeneic settings. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the different manufacturing processes for isolation and expansion of thymus-derived regulatory T cells, their clinical relevance and current ongoing clinical trials investigating the therapeutic potential of this novel class of Tregs.
Keywords: regulatory T cells, Thymus, thyTregs, Treg isolation, in vitro Treg expansion, Treg cell therapy
Received: 15 Apr 2025; Accepted: 09 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hu, Cruz, Santosh Nirmala and Fuchs. 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: Anke Fuchs, Center for Regenerative Therapies (CRTD), Center for Molecular and Cellular Bioenginering (CMCB), Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany
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.