An endogenous nanomineral chaperones luminal antigen and peptidoglycan to intestinal immune cells.

ABSTRACT: In humans and other mammals it is known that calcium and phosphate ions are secreted from the distal small intestine into the lumen. However, why this secretion occurs is unclear. Here, we show that the process leads to the formation of amorphous magnesium-substituted calcium phosphate nanoparticles that trap soluble macromolecules, such as bacterial peptidoglycan and orally fed protein antigens, in the lumen and transport them to immune cells of the intestinal tissue. The macromolecule-containing nanoparticles utilize epithelial M cells to enter Peyer's patches, small areas of the intestine concentrated with particle-scavenging immune cells. In wild-type mice, intestinal immune cells containing these naturally formed nanoparticles expressed the immune tolerance-associated molecule 'progra

SUBMITTER: Powell JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4404757 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature