It provides a new way to identify and isolate regulatory T cells, especially in humans, which is a very hot topic. One of the problems with the field has been the lack of effective markers that allow the isolation and study of this critical population.

Both CD4+CD25+ and CD4+CD25- subsets that were CD127low/- were suppressive and, as such, more suppressor cells could be isolated based upon CD4 and CD127 expression than based upon CD4 and CD25 expression alone.

Future studies comparing classical CD4/CD25hi and CD4/CD127lo regulatory T cells will be important in uncovering potential biological differences in these populations which may be relevant to the use of CD127 as a biomarker of regulatory T cells and also to the clinical testing of these two suppressor cell populations.

It’s mostly a methodology but it emphasizes what has been missed in the past by relying on cell surface markers that are inadequate. It also brings into question a number of studies looking as these cells in diseases like diabetes where a lack of good markers may have led to incomplete conclusions.

It provides clinical immunologists with a testable marker for immune regulation that can be used to isolate and study regulatory T cells, which are critical regulators of autoimmunity and other immune responses, without affecting their functionality.

We have been studying Tregs (regulatory T cells) for many years and were frustrated by the fact that, in humans, these cells were difficult to identify and impossible to isolate without losing the majority of cells. Since we wanted to use them therapeutically, it was essential to find better markers.