title: Mucosal immunity in resource-limited setting: is the battle ground different?
abstract: In many developing countries, populations are under considerable pressure from high bacterial exposure on mucosal surfaces. Immune dysregulation in this setting is multifactorial and is driven by a range of environmental factors, undernutrition and coinfections such as measles, malaria and HIV. Disruption or subversion of respiratory-tract and intestinal epithelial barriers leads to increased invasion by mucosal pathogens and a high frequency of life-threatening bacterial disease. It is our opinion that a process of epithelial barrier dysfunction and immune dysregulation at these mucosal surfaces leads to the much higher rates of pneumonia, meningitis and severe sepsis seen in resource-limited countries.
authors.affiliation: Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme, Blantyre, Malawi. sarah.glennie@liverpool.ac.uk
authors.forename: Sarah J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Glennie
authors.forename: Neil A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Robert S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Heyderman
mesh_terms: D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000209:etiology* / Q000276:immunology; D003906:Developing Countries; D006801:Humans; D018928:Immunity, Mucosal; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors