Understanding germinal center reactions is crucial not only for the design of effective vaccines against infectious agents and malignant cells but also for the development of therapeutic intervention for the treatment of antibody-mediated immune disorders. Recent advances in this field have revealed specialized subsets of T cells necessary for the control of B cell responses in the follicle. These cells include follicular regulatory T cells and Qa-1-restricted cluster of differentiation (CD)8(+) regulatory T cells. In this review, we discuss the current knowledge related to the role of regulatory T cells in the B cell follicle.
Keywords: Autoantibody; B cell; Follicular helper T cell; Foxp3+ regulatory T cell; Germinal center; Qa-1 restricted CD8+ regulatory T cell.