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For gut's sake: NLRC4 inflammasomes distinguish friend from foe

In the gut, cells of the immune system must tolerate commensal bacteria but also detect pathogens. To achieve this, intestinal phagocytes are hyporesponsive to Toll-like receptor stimulants released from commensals, but can detect invasion of pathogens via the intracellular NLRC4 inflammasome.

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Figure 1: Phagocytic cells respond to stimulants of the innate immune response and microbes depending on the microenvironment in which they are located.

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Correspondence to Eicke Latz.

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Franklin, B., Latz, E. For gut's sake: NLRC4 inflammasomes distinguish friend from foe. Nat Immunol 13, 429–431 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ni.2289

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