Harnessing tissue-resident Tregs to control tissue inflammation
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Harnessing tissue-resident Tregs to control tissue inflammation
IRAS ID
301709
Contact name
Adrian Liston
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Babraham Institute
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
222442/Z/21/Z, Wellcome Trust, 'Brain CD4 T cells and their influence over microglial homeostasis'
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
Regulatory T cells (Tregs) control the tendencies of the immune system to react against itself, preventing destruction of the body by lymphocytes responding inappropriately. This autoimmune attack manifests as infiltration and inflammation throughout the organs of the body in individuals and mice lacking Tregs or critical Treg molecules such as CD25. In a very basic sense, Tregs protect the body’s tissues. In recent years, researchers have characterized murine (mouse) Treg populations in several non-lymphoid tissues, including skin, gut, adipose tissue, lung, liver and muscle. These tissue-resident Tregs adapt to the tissue environment and show enhanced abilities to repair inflammatory damage to the tissue. With funding from an ERC consolidator grant, we have found that Tregs are present in nearly all murine non-lymphoid tissues and display observable characteristics that differ considerably from circulating Tregs in the blood. We propose to investigate human tissue Tregs with the aim of identifying the key molecules involved in differentiation, tissue entry and suppression of disease.
REC name
North West - Haydock Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/NW/0236
Date of REC Opinion
26 Jul 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion