Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder caused by an immune response to gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. When someone with celiac disease eats gluten, the immune system mistakenly causes chronic inflammation in the small intestine. Over time, this can damage the small intestine, prevent the absorption of nutrients and cause diarrhea, fatigue, weight loss, and anemia, among many other symptoms.
Tissue-resident lymphocytes are immune cells that help maintain and protect our tissues at barrier sites, like the lining of the intestine. In the video above, Bana Jabri, MD, PhD, the Sarah and Harold Lincoln Thompson Professor of Medicine, Pathology and Pediatrics at the University of Chicago, and Toufic Mayassi, a graduate student in the Committee on Immunology, discuss their research focused on understanding how chronic inflammation in celiac disease impacts tissue-resident lymphocytes.
They were able to uncover that tissue-resident lymphocytes normally found in the healthy intestine were permanently displaced in patients with celiac disease in favor of new cells that showed sensitivity to gluten, even in those who had gone on a gluten free diet. The study showed that chronic inflammation in patients with celiac disease permanently “scars” the community of immune cells in the small intestine, which may have a lasting impact on how the gut responds in the future.
Originally reported in The Forefront https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/gastrointestinal-articles/2019/february/celiac-disease-permanently-shapes-immune-cells-in-the-intestine
The new research was published in this week’s edition of Cell.