Skip to main content
. 2013 Aug 4;2013:689827. doi: 10.1155/2013/689827

Table 1.

Main findings of FoxP3+CD25+CD4+ Tregs in the pathogenesis of stroke.

Species Model Main findings Authors
C57BL/6J mice Transient MCAO (90 minutes) Splenic atrophy; an increased percentage of FoxP3+CD4+ Tregs in blood and spleen Offner et al. (2006) [89]

C57/BL6 mice Transient MCAO (60 minutes) Accumulation of FoxP3+ lymphocytes in the ischemic hemisphere; a high percentage of FoxP3+CD4+ and FoxP3+CD8+ lymphocytes in splenic T-lymphocytes Gelderblom et al. (2009) [76]

C57BL/6 mice; Rag1−/− mice; IL-10 knockout mice Transient MCAO (30 minutes or 90 minutes) Neuroprotective effects of FoxP3+CD25+CD4+ Tregs: inhibit inflammatory brain damage, restrain secondary infarct expansion, and attenuate functional neurological deficit; IL-10 signal pathway is essential for their immunomodulatory effect Liesz et al. (2009) [12]

46 consecutive acute stroke patients Clinical study Increased apoptosis and a decline of FoxP3+CD25+CD4+ Tregs poststroke; decreased FoxP3+CD25+CD4+ Tregs did not show a correlation with the development of infection or stroke outcome Urra et al. (2009) [78]

67 subjects (25 of them with acute ischemic stroke) Clinical study Increased number of CD25+CD4+ Tregs in the peripheral blood Yan et al. (2009) [77]

CB-17 mice; SCID mice Permanent MCAO Deleption of CD25+ T cells suppressed generation of neural stem/progenitor cells and impaired functional recovery Saino et al. (2010) [90]

C57BL/6 mice; 22 patients with acute ischemic stroke Transient MCAO (90 minutes); an ex vivo analysis The suppressive effect of Tregs in the mouse and humans is unaltered poststroke and reduced efficacy of circulating costimulatory cells after MCAO Hug et al. (2011) [81]

FoxP3DTR mice Transient MCAO (60 minutes) FoxP3+CD4+ Tregs depletion did not affect stroke infarct volume Ren et al. (2011) [27]

700 subjects Clinical study No correlation between low levels of circulating FoxP3+CD25+CD4+ Tregs and an increased risk for the development of stroke Wigren et al. (2012) [82]

Sprague-Dawley rats Transient MCAO (120 minutes) Adoptively transferred CD25+CD4+ Tregs ameliorated neuroinflammation, reduced brain infarct, and improved both short- and long-term neurological functions after cerebral ischemia; CD25+CD4+ Tregs reduce brain infarct size via BBB protection involving inhibition of neutrophil-derived MMP-9 production Li et al. (2013) [64]

DEREG mice; C57BL/6 wild-type mice; Rag1−/− mice Transient MCAO (30 minutes or 60 minutes) FoxP3+CD25+CD4+ Tregs strongly promoted acute ischemic stroke in mice by inducing dysfunction of the cerebral microvasculature; established immunoregulatory effects of FoxP3+CD4+ Tregs had no functional relevance Kleinschnitz et al. (2013) [28]

FoxP3EGFP reporter mice; RAG1−/− mice; C57BL/6J mice Transient MCAO (30 minutes) A strong accumulation and proliferation of FoxP3+CD25+CD4+ Tregs in the ischemic hemisphere in late phase (peaked around days 14 and up to days 30); delayed depletion of CD25+ Tregs does not worsen long-term outcome Stubbe et al. (2013) [80]

MCAO: middle cerebral artery occlusion; MMP-9: Matrix metallopeptidase 9; BBB: blood-brain barrier; Tregs: regulatory T-cells.