REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. T Cell Biology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1650451
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancing Treg Cell Therapy: A Comprehensive Review SeriesView all 5 articles
Tissue-specific roles of regulatory T cells: Mechanisms of suppression and beyond along with emerging therapeutic insights in autoimmune indications
Provisionally accepted
- Bioscience Immunology, Research and Early Development, Respiratory and Immunology, Biopharmaceuticals R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, United States
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Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are central to immune homeostasis and controlling inflammation through multiple mechanisms, however, recent discoveries and advances in technology reveal that Tregs exert a diverse array of functions beyond mere immunosuppression, adapting uniquely to the specialized environments of tissues. This review delves into the multifaceted, tissue-specific mechanisms of Tregs, highlighting their roles in tissue repair, inflammatory modulation, and tolerance maintenance. We explore the developmental, functional, and metabolic pathways that drive Treg specialization across distinct organs, such as the central nervous system, gastrointestinal tract, joints, skin, and lungs, and examine how these insights advance the design of novel, targeted therapies for autoimmune and inflammatory disorders. This review will emphasize non-suppressive functions, discussing how Tregs can be harnessed in therapeutic applications tailored to specific tissue microenvironments, offering a promising new direction for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.
Keywords: Tregs (regulatory T cells), Tissue Tregs, Autoimmunity, Immune Tolerance, CAR-Treg, Treg plasticity, tissue repair
Received: 19 Jun 2025; Accepted: 31 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jugder, Park, Du, Jawale, Popov, Guo, Bednar and Ort. 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: Bat-Erdene Jugder, Bioscience Immunology, Research and Early Development, Respiratory and Immunology, Biopharmaceuticals R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, United States
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.