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T cell homing to epithelial barriers in allergic disease

Nature Medicine volume 18, pages 705–715 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

Allergic inflammation develops in tissues that have large epithelial surface areas that are exposed to the environment, such as the lung, skin and gut. In the steady state, antigen-experienced memory T cells patrol these peripheral tissues to facilitate swift immune responses against invading pathogens. In at least two allergy-prone organs, the skin and the gut, memory T cells are programmed during the initial antigen priming to express trafficking receptors that enable them to preferentially home to these organs. In this review we propose that tissue-specific memory and inflammation-specific T cell trafficking facilitates the development of allergic disease in these organs. We thus review recent advances in our understanding of tissue-specific T cell trafficking and how regulation of T cell trafficking by the chemokine system contributes to allergic inflammation in mouse models and in human allergic diseases of the skin, lung and gut. Inflammation- and tissue-specific T lymphocyte trafficking pathways are currently being targeted as new treatments for non-allergic inflammatory diseases and may yield effective new therapeutics for allergic diseases.

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Figure 1: Generation of allergen-specific effector and memory T cells during primary immune responses at the epithelial barrier.
Figure 2: Tissue-specific imprinting and steady-state programmed memory T cell trafficking to atopy-prone organs.
Figure 3: Chemokine receptors associated with CD4+ helper T cell subsets.
Figure 4: Trafficking of TH2 cell subsets into the skin during the acute and chronic phases of atopic dermatitis.
Figure 5: Chemokine-regulated TH cell trafficking into the lung during the early and late phases of the asthmatic response.

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Acknowledgements

The authors were supported by US National Institutes of Health grants R37AI040618 and U19AI095261 to A.D.L.

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  1. Division of Rheumatology, Center for Immunology and Inflammatory Diseases, Allergy and Immunology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Sabina A Islam & Andrew D Luster

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Islam, S., Luster, A. T cell homing to epithelial barriers in allergic disease. Nat Med 18, 705–715 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2760

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