Findings of this study have shown that microbiota balance intestinal immune responses and protect against inflammation through interactions with epithelial and immune cells, findings that suggest manipulating good bacterias to minimize the immune responses could be of benefit to individuals with conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease.
Strong inflammatory immune responses can be prompted by microbes which are designed to eliminate the microbe, this response can also damage healthy tissues. Microbiota help to tamper the response by triggering antigen presenting APCs cells to release cytokine IL-10 which regulates T cell responses to prevent inflammation; which results in a balanced response that can still fight off infection but is regulated to prevent damage to healthy intestinal tissues.
Laboratory animals were administered antibiotics to investigate how microbiota trigger the response, and found that APCs failed to produce IL-10 among animals given antibiotics, when transferred back it was found only the bacteria that were able to interact with intestinal epithelial cells could trigger antigen presenting cells to produce IL-10.
Microbes which attach to intestinal epithelium are thought of as pathogens that can cause disease, researchers have found that in this case attachment of bacteria to epithelium was necessary to promote balanced regulations of T cell responses and help protect the gut.
Signalling pathways activated once bacteria attach to epithelium are being investigated by the researchers in hopes to identify new pathways which can be manipulated to balance immune responses.
