The role of activated T lymphocytes in gastrointestinal disease.
Activated T cells can be visualized in the intestinal lamina propria in a number of gastrointestinal diseases including food-sensitive enteropathy (coeliac disease), inflammatory bowel disease and intractable diarrhoea of infancy. Experimental studies have shown that T-cell activation in human intestinal lamina propria in vitro produces an increase in crypt cell proliferation, villous atrophy, increased HLA-DR expression on enterocytes, increased intra-epithelial lymphocyte numbers, and phenotypically, macrophage activation. All of these features are seen in human gastrointestinal disorders and it is proposed that T-cell activation to wheat (in coeliac disease), milk (cows' milk-sensitive enteropathy), and unidentified luminal antigens (Crohn's disease) plays a primary role in the pathogenesis of these disorders.
Department of Paediatric Gastroenterology, St Bartholomews Hospital, London, UK.
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MacDonald
D000818:Animals; D004285:Dogs; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000276:immunology*; D006084:Graft Rejection / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000276:immunology; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D015375:Receptors, Interleukin-2 / Q000032:analysis; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*
D015375:Receptors, Interleukin-2