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Published April 17, 2014 | public
Journal Article

Microbial Learning Lessons: SFB Educate the Immune System

Abstract

Powerful signals from the microbiota instruct architectural and functional features of the mammalian immune system (Lee and Mazmanian, 2010). Though the human and mouse microbiota contain several hundred species, only a handful of microorganisms have been experimentally shown to have immune-modulating capabilities. Segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB) are unique, compared to other microbes, in their ability to induce germinal center activation in Peyer's patches (PPs) of mice (Talham et al., 1999), increase production of immunoglobulin A (IgA) (Klaasen et al., 1993), and contribute to the expansion and function of mucosal T cells (Umesaki et al., 1999). Unlike other T helper cell subsets, T helper 17 (Th17) cells, which have been linked to both mucosal resistance to enteric pathogens and to autoimmunity in mice, are acutely responsive to the microbiota and to SFB in particular. Germ-free animals are essentially devoid of gut Th17 cells (Ivanov et al., 2008), and interest in SFB was rekindled when two groups showed that this microbe specifically induced Th17 cells in the small intestine of mice (Ivanov et al., 2009 and Gaboriau-Routhiau et al., 2009). Subsequent work showed that SFB promote Th17 responses at extraintestinal locations during autoimmune inflammation (Lee et al., 2011 and Wu et al., 2010), and although the site of induction is unknown, a gut origin is likely. In this issue, two papers extend understanding of how specific members of the gut microbiota educate the mucosal immune system. Goto et al. (2014), and Lécuyer et al. (2014), show that SFB induce adaptive immune responses at specific, and unconventional, mucosal sites, likely involving a process that requires presentations of SFB antigens.

Additional Information

© 2014 Elsevier Inc.

Additional details

Created:
August 20, 2023
Modified:
October 26, 2023