FOXP3 and autoimmune disease: Foxp3+ Treg cells have been demonstrated effective in the control of autoimmune disease (Buckner, 2010), and in DCM patients, a significant reduction in peripheral TGF-β and IL-10 with decreased Foxp3 expression contributed to an imbalance in the Treg/Th17 ratio (Li et al., 2010, 2017; Tang et al., 2010).