Epigenetic Regulation of Regulatory T Cells in Kidney Disease and Transplantation

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.