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bio_man bio_man
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12 years ago
Colon identified as a seat of immune cell learning

HEY! T-cells! Leave them bugs alone! Some immune cells need an education to avoid attacking gut bacteria that help digest food - and their classroom is your colon.

One seat of immune cell learning - the thymus - is already known. Chyi-Song Hsieh at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri, says the colon is another. His team found that receptors on regulatory T-cells in the colon of mice match those on the gut bacteria, meaning the T-cells have been "taught" to avoid the bugs. As these bacteria are found only in the gut, Hsieh says the T-cells received their education there.

When Hsieh's team transferred T-cells between mice with different gut flora, the mice displayed symptoms of colitis - an inflamed gut (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature10434). That suggests colitis may be down to poor education of the T-cells.
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