Cutting Edge: Intestinal Mucus Limits the Clonal Deletion of Developing T Cells Specific for an Oral Antigen.

In this study, we investigated whether MUC2 helps maintain CD8 T cell tolerance toward intestinal luminal Ags by gavaging wild-type and Muc2-/- mice with a model Ag and monitoring immune responses posttreatment. We report that orally delivered OVA rapidly disseminates through the blood of Muc2-/- (but not control) mice and causes immune activation of Ag-specific CD8 T cells at both local and distal sites. Further, the administration of oral OVA to Muc2-/- mice led to its presentation by thymic dendritic cells and the deletion of Ag-specific thymocytes. Collectively, our findings suggest that intestinal mucus helps limit the shaping of the TCR repertoire of developing thymocytes by intestinal luminal Ags.
PMID: 32540993 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Journal of Immunology - June 14, 2020 Category: Allergy & Immunology Authors: Tsai K, Huang YH, Ma C, Baldwin TA, Harder KW, Vallance BA, Priatel JJ Tags: J Immunol Source Type: research