Title:Epigenetic Regulation of Regulatory T Cells in Kidney Disease and Transplantation
Volume: 17
Issue: 6
Author(s): Yufeng Liu *, Bo Peng, Shengdi Wu and Nuo Xu
Affiliation:
- Department of Nursing, General Surgery, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032,China
Keywords:
Epigenetic regulation, Regulatory T cells, Kidney, Transplantation, Treg cells, DNA.
Abstract: Regulatory T (Treg) cells are a kind of immunosuppression cells, which have been used to
treat autoimmune diseases and induce allograft tolerance in clinical trials. While Treg cells based therapy
is a promising treatment for kidney diseases and an emerging concept for tolerance induction in
renal transplantation, a better understanding of the functions and biology of Treg cells is needed to be
able to optimally exploit them. Epigenetics regulation, which refers to potentially heritable alterations
in gene expression without underlying changes of the nucleotide sequence, plays an important role in
Treg cells induction and maintenance. The expression of Foxp3, the key factor of Treg cells, is regulated
by DNA methylation, histone modification and post-transcriptionally modification. Herein, we
review the current understanding of Treg cells in kidney diseases and transplantation, and discuss the
epigenetic regulation of Treg cells.
