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Regulation of the immune response by carbohydrates (469.2)
Author(s) -
Cobb Brian
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.28.1_supplement.469.2
Subject(s) - immune system , hygiene hypothesis , immunology , biology , autoimmunity , context (archaeology) , bacteroides fragilis , disease , antigen , antigen presentation , inflammation , glycosylation , t cell , microbiology and biotechnology , medicine , genetics , antibiotics , paleontology , pathology
Over the past several decades, Western society has witnessed a marked increase in allergy and autoimmune diseases. This trend has been thought to be caused by a greater number of vaccines coupled with increasingly sterile environments. The hygiene hypothesis posits that these changes limit microbial exposure to a degree that is ultimately pathologic in terms of the development and regulation of the immune system. Within that context, our research has focused on the commensal bacterium Bacteroides fragilis and its capsular polysaccharide PSA. This and other “glycoantigens” are gaining recognition as potent immunomodulatory factors that help to not only direct the maturation of the immune system, but also to limit pathologic inflammation associated with disease. Our findings demonstrate that these molecules stimulate a protective T cell‐dependent response in the gut that can influence peripheral tissues, and that the ability to activate these protective T cells depends upon the regulation of host glycosylation machinery in antigen presenting cells. This presentation will highlight our published and unpublished data that collectively establishes the relationship between host glycosylation and commensal polysaccharide antigens as a critical regulatory axis underlying the hygiene hypothesis and the associated increase in allergy and autoimmunity.