Absolute decrease in regulatory T cells and low-dose interleukin-2 therapy: restoring and expanding regulatory T cells to treat systemic sclerosis: a 24-week study.

Our study showed that the absolute numbers of peripheral Treg cells together with total T, CD4+ T, CD8+ T and NK is significantly decreased, leading to an imbalance of Th17 to Treg cells in patients with SSc, and that low-dose IL-2 treatment could restore the balance of the two immune cells and reduce disease activity without obvious adverse effects.