A method of treating inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) comprises collecting regulatory T cells in an activated or non-activated state from a patient's sentinel lypmph nodes draining bowel segments with or without IBD, optionally activating the cells by contacting them with a cytokine and an antigen extract obtained from an inflamed bowel segment, expanding the T cells in vitro, and re-infusing the expanded T cells to the patient. Also disclosed are methods for obtaining sentinel nodes, for expanding T cells, for re-establishing the T
