Cellular therapies in endocrine diseases.

Currently, no curative therapies are available for many malignant diseases and for autoimmune disorders. Over the past two decades, however, substantial progress has been made in our understanding of immunity and immune tolerance. Numerous of immune mechanisms were identified responsible for breaking the state of tolerance and for inducing specific cytotoxic immunity. In parallel, much knowledge has been gained on how immune tolerance can be re-induced in autoimmune diseases. Here, we would like to add value to the current advances in cellular therapy for treating endocrine cancer as well as for inducing immune tolerance in autoimmune diseases. In addition, new insights into stem cell research in autoimmune diseases are presented and future perspectives are given.