Can Treg therapy prevent GVHD?

In this issue of Blood, Brunstein and colleagues report the results of the first study to test the safety of human umbilical cord blood - derived regulatory T cells (Tregs), an approach designed to decrease graft-versus-host disease.¹ Transplanters, like Sisyphus of myth, have struggled mightily with trials of pharmacologic immunosuppressive drugs - we roll the rock up the mountain, only to see it roll back, leaving us where we began. This struggle has now led us to seek cellular therapies as a promising alternative.