Goblet cell associated antigen passages support the induction and maintenance of oral tolerance.

ABSTRACT: Tolerance to innocuous antigens from the diet and the commensal microbiota is a fundamental process essential to health. Why tolerance is efficiently induced to substances arising from the hostile environment of the gut lumen is incompletely understood but may be related to how these antigens are encountered by the immune system. We observed that goblet cell associated antigen passages (GAPs), but not other pathways of luminal antigen capture, correlated with the acquisition of luminal substances by lamina propria (LP) antigen presenting cells (APCs) and with the sites of tolerance induction to luminal antigens. Strikingly this role extended beyond antigen delivery. The GAP function of goblet cells facilitated maintenance of pre-existing LP T regulatory cells (Tregs), imprinting LP-dendrit

SUBMITTER: Kulkarni DH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7044050 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature