title: T cell homing to epithelial barriers in allergic disease.
abstract: Allergic inflammation develops in tissues that have large epithelial surface areas that are exposed to the environment, such as the lung, skin and gut. In the steady state, antigen-experienced memory T cells patrol these peripheral tissues to facilitate swift immune responses against invading pathogens. In at least two allergy-prone organs, the skin and the gut, memory T cells are programmed during the initial antigen priming to express trafficking receptors that enable them to preferentially home to these organs. In this review we propose that tissue-specific memory and inflammation-specific T cell trafficking facilitates the development of allergic disease in these organs. We thus review recent advances in our understanding of tissue-specific T cell trafficking and how regulation of T cell trafficking by the chemokine system contributes to allergic inflammation in mouse models and in human allergic diseases of the skin, lung and gut. Inflammation- and tissue-specific T lymphocyte trafficking pathways are currently being targeted as new treatments for non-allergic inflammatory diseases and may yield effective new therapeutics for allergic diseases.
authors.affiliation: Center for Immunology and Inflammatory Diseases, Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
authors.forename: Sabina A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Islam
authors.forename: Andrew D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Luster
mesh_terms: D000485:Allergens / Q000276:immunology; D000818:Animals; D001249:Asthma / Q000276:immunology; D002465:Cell Movement; D018925:Chemokines / Q000502:physiology; D004848:Epithelium / Q000276:immunology*; D005512:Food Hypersensitivity / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D006967:Hypersensitivity / Q000276:immunology*; D007156:Immunologic Memory; D051379:Mice; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D018418:Th2 Cells / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D000485:Allergens; D018925:Chemokines