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How regulatory T cells are primed to aid tolerance of gut bacteria

The immune system must be actively controlled to prevent inflammatory bowel disease. Cell populations have been found that promote immunosuppressive regulatory T cells of the immune system in the gut.
  1. Mark A. Travis

    1. Mark A. Travis is at the Lydia Becker Institute of Immunology and Inflammation, Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell-Matrix Research, Division of Immunology, Immunity to Infection and Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9NT, UK.

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  2. Chiara Romagnani

    1. Chiara Romagnani is in the Medical Department (Gastroenterology, Infectious Diseases and Rheumatology), Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany, and in the departments of Innate Immunity and Leibniz ScienceCampus Chronic Inflammation, German Rheumatism Research Center Berlin (DRFZ), Berlin 10117.

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Our immune system must respond quickly to dangerous disease-causing agents but also needs to ignore our own cells and anything benign. This balancing act is precarious in the gut, which is home to a multitude of harmless microorganisms, termed the microbiota. These microbes should not attract the attention of the immune system, but if the immune system fails to ignore them and targets them instead, this can cause inflammation and the development of inflammatory bowel disease1. Writing in Nature, Lyu et al.2, Kedmi et al.3 and Akagbosu et al.4 shed light on a key process that is required to dampen immune responses directed against the microbiota.

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Nature 610, 638-640 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03368-2

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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