GI Immunology Flashcards
What is self-tolerance?
Non-responsiveness to self antigens
What is exogenous tolerance?
Non-responsiveness to an enormous array of newly encountered environmental antigens (food and microbes)
What are the challenges of antigen processing in the GI tract?
Developing self-tolerance, exogenous tolerance and an effective immune response
Which cells are the soluble mediators of immune response?
Cytokines and chemokines
What is the name of groups of lymphoid tissue in the small intestine?
Peyer’s Patches
Why are Peyer’s Patches important?
They are important for immune responses to commensal bacteria (tolerance) and pathogens (active immunity)
What is the role of dendritic cells in mucosal immunity?
They present antigens to naïve T cells
What cells are part of the innate immune system?
Macrophages, monocytes, neutrophils and dendritic cells
What cells are part of the adaptive immune system?
T and B cells
What happens when the normal immune homeostasis goes wrong?
Inflammatory bowel disease and coeliac disease
What is inflammatory bowel disease?
Chronic, relapsing, remitting inflammation of gastrointestinal tract
What are two examples of IBD?
Chrohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis
What are the treatment strategies?
Target lymphocytes directly
Target Single Cytokines
Target Migration of Immune Cells to GI Mucosa
Target Multiple Cytokines
Target Cytokine Intracellular Signalling Pathways
Modulation of Microbiota
What is the new biologic for IBD?
Vedolizumab
What happens to the villi in coeliac disease?
Loss of the villi and therefore loss of absorptive capacity
