Tissue adaptation of regulatory and intraepithelial CD4 + T cells controls gut inflammation

Abstract

Location matters for immunosuppression In the gut, food antigens and resident microbes can trigger unwanted immune responses. Immunosuppressive cell types in the gut, such as regulatory T cells (T regs ) and intraepithelial T lymphocytes (IELs), help to keep these responses at bay. Sujino et al. report that the specific anatomical location within the gut shapes the properties of the suppressive T cell populations that reside there (see the Perspective by Colonna and Cervantes-Barragan). Using mice, they find that T regs primarily reside in the lamina propria. T regs migrate to the intestinal epithelium, where they convert to IELs in a process that depends on the microbiota and the loss of a specific transcription factor. T regs and IELs also play distinct but complementary roles in suppressing intestinal inflammation. Science , this issue p. 1581 ; see also p. 1515