Lung epithelial cells instruct T cells and adaptive immunity
Lung immunity is essential to combat all pulmonary diseases, including COVID-19, pneumonia, lung cancer, asthma and COPD. Lung immunity differs from the systemic immunity which is the normal focus of biomedical investigations and interventions, but factors influencing the establishment and regulation of lung immunity are mostly still unknown. Jay Mizgerd‘s lab team, led by postdoc Anukul Shenoy, have now shown ways in which control of immunity in the lungs is accomplished by lung epithelial cells, which use MHC-II to present antigen to CD4+ T cells and thereby help establish lung resident memory T (TRM) cell numbers, locations, and phenotypes.
More info can be found in the BUSM press release.
The full paper is fully available Open Access through Nature Communications.