LEADING ARTICLE

Microbes, immunoregulation, and the gut

G A W Rook, L R Brunet

Centre for Infectious Diseases and International Health, Windeyer Institute of Medical Sciences, Royal Free and University College Medical School, London, UK

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Professor G Rook
Centre for Infectious Diseases and International Health, Windeyer Institute of Medical Sciences, Royal Free and University College Medical School, 46 Cleveland St, London W1T 4JF, UK; g.rook{at}ucl.ac.uk

Two distinct, but rapidly converging, areas of research (the hygiene hypothesis and the study of probiotic/prebiotic effects) have emphasised the need to understand, and ultimately to manipulate, our physiological interactions with commensal flora, and with other transient but harmless organisms from the environment that affect immunoregulatory circuits. The story began with allergic disorders but now inflammatory bowel disease is increasingly involved.

Abbreviations: IBD, inflammatory bowel disease; Th1, Th2, T helper 1, 2; T_effector, effector T cells, whether Th1 or Th2; T_reg, regulatory T cell; APC, APC_reg, antigen presenting cell/regulatory antigen presenting cell; DC, dendritic cell; TLR, toll-like receptor; KO, gene knockout; IL, interleukin; TGF-ß, transforming growth factor ß

Keywords: microbes; immunoregulation; inflammatory bowel disease; regulatory T cells; allergies; hygiene hypothesis; probiotics

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