Gut Immunity, Nutrition, and Adverse Food Reactions Flashcards
Describe gut immunity
the mucosal barriers are thin and very vulnerable to pathogenic infection, so the immune system must discriminate between protective immunity and tolerance
What are the gut associated lymphoid tissues (GALT)?
- tonsils
- adenoids
- Peyer’s patches
- isolated lymphoid tissue
- appendix
How do peyer’s patches and isolated lymphoid tissues receive antigens?
directly from epithelial surface - via Ag-transporting DCs
What are ILFs? How are they activated?
- single B-cell follicles that act as inductive site for IgA production
- MAMPs sensed by PRRs on intestistinal epithelial cells and DCs adjacent to cryptopatches recruit B cells and T cells. Cryptopatches mature into ILFs.
How do microbes enter Peyer’s patches?
Microbes cross epithelium through M cells to enter Peyer’s Patches. The microbes are endocytosed by DCs in the subepithelial dome. Ag-loaded DCs interact with lymphocytes to induce T cell differentiation and T cell dependent B cell maturation in multiple germinal centers —> induction of IgA producing plasma cells.
What do MAMPs stimulate?
proliferation of intestinal epithelial cells in crypts —> increased depth and increased density of Paneth cells
What are special challenges of the GI tract immune system?
- tolerance of food antigens
- tolerance of commensal microbiota but responsive to rare pathogens
- enormous surface area
What are special anatomic structures of the GI immune system?
- tonsils
- Peyer’s patches
- lamina propria follicles
What are the specialized cells or molecules of the GI immune system?
- intestinal epithelial cells: mucus secretion
- M cells: luminal antigen sampling
- Paneth cells: defensin production
- Secretory IgA, IgM: neutralization of microbes in the lumen
- Dendritic cell subsets:
What are the functions of DCs in GI immunity?
- luminal antigen sampling
- lamina propria sampling
- T cell tolerance induction
- effector T cell activation
- induction of B cell IgA class switching
- imprinting gut-homing phenotypes of B and T cells
The effector lymphocytes that are generated in the draining GALT of a partigular regional immune system will enter _____ and preferentially ____ to _____.
the blood; home back; lamina propria of the same organ
What are 3 major ways that the gut prevents infections?
- the presence of a thick mucus layer that keeps most organisms in the lumen away from the intestinal epithelium
- antibiotic peptides produced by intestinal epithelial cells that kill pathogens in the lumen or reduce their entry into the epithelium
- IgA produced by plasma cells that kill pathogens in the lumen or reduce their entry into the epithelium
What are the layers of GI tract starting at the lumen?
- secreted mucus
- epithelial cell layer: intestinal epithelial cells, dendritic cells, M cells, goblet cells
- lamina propria: innate sentinel cells and lymphocytes; mucosal associated lymphoid tissues: Peyers patches; plasma cells
What are the types of intestinal epithelial cells? Where are they found?
- mucus-secreting goblet cells: top of intestinal villi
- antigen-sampling M cells: in specialized dome structures overlying lymphoid tissues
- antibacterial peptide secreting Paneth cells: bottom of crypts
What is innate immune protection in the gut mediated by?
-physical and chemical barrier provided by mucosal epithelial cells and their mucus secretions
What block the movement of microbes between adjacent intestinal epithelial cells into lamina propria?
tight junctions
What types of cells in the mucosa are capable of mounting inflammatory and anti-viral responses?
- epithelial cells
- DCs
- macrophages
- innate lymphoid cells
What is secreted from goblet cells?
mucins - extensively glycosylated proteins that form a viscous physical barrier that prevents microbes from contacting the epithelial lining of GI tract
What are the physical barriers of the GI tract?
- mucus layer - mucins
- glycocalyx - dense macromolecular layer
What stimuli increases mucin production?
- cytokines: IL-1, IL-4, IL-6, IL-9, IL13, TNF, type I interferons
- neutrophil products: elastase
- microbial adhesive proteins
What are defensins?
What are major defensins in the small bowel? What are they produced by?
What are major defensins in the colon?
peptides produced by various cell types that exert lethal toxic effects on microbes by inserting into and causing loss of integrity of their outer phospholipid membranes
- alpha defensins (HD5, HD6) produced by Paneth cells at the base of crypts between microvilli
- beta defensins produced by absorptive epithelial cells in intestinal crypts (constitutively or in response to IL-1 or bacteria)
What do Paneth cells produce?
- defensins
- trypsin
- C0type lecins called regenerating islet-derived proteins
What TLRs are expressed by intestinal epithelial cells?
2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9
What does TLR signaling do?
- increases intestinal epithelial motility and proliferation
- stimulates secretion of defensins, REGIII lectins, and IgA
What are the functions of DCs and macrophages in the lamina propria of healthy people?
- inhibit inflammation:
- macrophages stimulated by TGF beta: secrete IL-10
- maintain homeostasis
What stimulates innate lymphoid cells in the intestinal mucosa?
alarmins from injured or infected epithelial ceslls
What is the function of IL-17 and IL-22?
- IL-17 promotes acute inflammatory response to microbes
- both IL-17 and IL-22 enhance intestinal mucosal barrier function by stimulating production of defensins and enhancing epithelial tight junction function
What are the features of the adaptive immune system in GI?
- major form of adaptive immunity is humoral immunity directed at microbes in the lumen
- dominance of IgA in mucosal secretions
- protective cell-mediated immune responses against microbes in the gut are mediated by helper T cells
- major mechanism for controlling inflammatory reactions in the gut is activation of Tregs.
Where are Peyer’s Patches usually found? What do their germinal centers contain?
- distal ileum
- B lymphocytes, follicular helper T cells, follicular dendritic cells, macrophages
Where are M cells?
regions of the gut epithelium called follicle-associated (dome) epithelium that overlie Peyer’s patches and other GALT structures