Table 1.

Regulatory immune effectors involved in food allergy pathogenesis.

Site/Effector	Expected association with allergy	Mechanism and potential role for allergy prevention
Regulatory T cells
Th1 cells	Th1 responses suppress Th2	Use of Th1-inducing adjuvants for immunotherapy [43]
Induced Tregs	Suppress Th2	Multiple subsets have been described. More recently, Duhen et al [44] described Tregs subsets ‘mirroring’ effector subsets ie Th1reg, Th2reg, Th17reg etc. Tregs may inhibit allergy at multiple levels, acting upon the antigen presentation process and directly on T effectors. [5]
LAP+FoxP3- Treg	Gastrointestinal-homing subset	TGF beta-dependent suppression of allergic reactions [5]
Regulatory B cells
B cells producing ‘blocking’ IgG/IgG4	Suppress allergy	IgG/IgG4 cross-link the inhibitory Fc gamma type 2 receptor on antigen presenting cells [40]
CD5+ Bregs	Suppress allergy	Suppress Th2 responses by secreting IL10 [45]