Autoimmune disease is treated by the delivery of a suppressive agent to the site of disease. Delivery is accomplished by introducing an expression vector encoding the suppressive agent into cells targeted for such sites, and administering the genetically modified cells to the patient. Suppressive agents of particular interest include IL-4; and anti-CD3 antibodies, particularly single chain anti-CD3 antibodies. Cells of interest for delivery include T cells and T cell hybridomas, where the T cell antigen receptor recognizes epitopes associated with the autoimmune disease. Alternatively, dendritic cells are used as delivery vectors.