Immune monitoring of the body’s borders

Abstract

The immune system spends most of its efforts and energy policing rather than attacking, cleaning up the molecular and cellular trash, maintaining the borders of the human body, and quashing minor disturbances rather than responding to pathogenic microbes. The cells that carry out these functions play by rules that are different from those described in the classical immunology textbooks, being triggered by alternative stimulants such as vitamin B analogues, glycolipids and cellular stress molecules and express different cell surface markers. Treg/TR1 cells and Th17 cells shift function depending upon the needs of the situation as directed by the cytokine environment. Better understanding of these “normal” functions for the immune response will also provide greater insights into dysregulation and conditions of excess as occur during autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.

Keywords

• GALT| MALT| ILC| MAIT| NKT| γδ T cells| CD8αα cells| Treg| cryptopatches| isolated lymphoid follicles| Peyer’s patches