Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2018 Nov 20:9:2617.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.02617. eCollection 2018.

An Insight Into the Intestinal Web of Mucosal Immunity, Microbiota, and Diet in Inflammation

Yu Anne Yap  1 , Eliana Mariño  1
Affiliations
Review

An Insight Into the Intestinal Web of Mucosal Immunity, Microbiota, and Diet in Inflammation

Yu Anne Yap et al. Front Immunol. .

Abstract

The rising global incidence of autoimmune and inflammatory conditions can be attributed to changes in the large portion of the immune system that belongs to our gastrointestinal tract (GI). The intestinal immune system serves as a gatekeeper to prevent pathogenic invasions and to preserve a healthier gut microbiota. The gut microbiota has been increasingly studied as a fundamental contributor to the state of health and disease. From food fermentation, the gut microbiota releases metabolites or short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which have anti-inflammatory properties and preserve gut homeostasis. Immune responses against food and microbial antigens can cause inflammatory disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and celiac disease. As such, many autoimmune and inflammatory diseases also have a "gut origin". A large body of evidence in recent years by ourselves and others has uncovered the link between the immune system and the SCFAs in specific diseases such as autoimmune type 1 diabetes (T1D), obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D), cardiovascular disease, infections, allergies, asthma, and IBD. Thus, the power of these three gut dynamic components-the mucosal immunity, the microbiota, and diet-can be harnessed in tandem for the prevention and treatment of many inflammatory and infectious diseases.

Keywords: IELs; SCFAs; autoimmunity; diabetes; diet; gut microbiota; infections; mucosal immunity.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Flach M, Diefenbach A. Development of gut-associated lymphoid tissues. In: Mestecky J, Strober W, Russell MW, Kelsall BL, Cheroutre H, Lambrecht BN, editors. Mucosal Immunology, 4th Edn. Boston, MA: Academic Press; (2015). p. 31–42. 10.1016/B978-0-12-415847-4.00003-3 - DOI
    1. Kamada N, Seo S-U, Chen GY, Núñez G. Role of the gut microbiota in immunity and inflammatory disease. Nat Rev Immunol. (2013) 13:321. 10.1038/nri3430 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Littman DR, Pamer EG. Role of the commensal microbiota in normal and pathogenic host immune responses. Cell Host Microbe (2011) 10:311–23. 10.1016/j.chom.2011.10.004 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Maynard CL, Elson CO, Hatton RD, Weaver CT. Reciprocal interactions of the intestinal microbiota and immune system. Nature (2012) 489:231–41. 10.1038/nature11551 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Marino E, Richards JL, McLeod KH, Stanley D, Yap YA, Knight J, et al. Gut microbial metabolites limit the frequency of autoimmune T cells and protect against type 1 diabetes. Nat Immunol. (2017) 18:552–62. 10.1038/ni.3713 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types