Review Article
Role of Regulatory T Cells in Tumor-Bearing Mice Treated with Allo-Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Plus Thymus Transplantation
Figure 3
Hypothesis for immune regulation of malignant tumor by allo-HSCT + TT. The host antigen comes into direct contact with the transplanted thymus, whereas cancer antigens are relatively isolated from the transplanted thymus. Therefore, host antigen-specific Treg cells may be induced intrathymically to a greater extent than those specific to cancer antigens with thymic DC. Conversely, Teff cells are tolerant toward host antigens, but not cancer antigens with medullary TEC (mTEC), yielding the same results. This may result in strong GVT with mild GVHD. Figure 3 is modified from Hosaka [1], under the Creative Commons Attribution License/public domain.