JAX CRC investigators Derya Unutmaz and Julia Oh have written a Science Immunology
perspective review on two exciting articles that have just been published in Science, which show very close interactions between an immune cell subtype called mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells and the microbiota. MAIT cells are a special type of T cell that are stimulated by vitamin B2 derivatives that have been produced by bacteria, and it is thought that MAIT cells control the immune response to bacterial, fungal and even some viral infections.
The first article, by M.G. Constantinides et al., shows that commensal, or friendly, bacteria control the development of MAIT cells in the thymus, and
the second, by F. Legoux et al., shows that these commensal bacteria also control the expansion of MAIT cells into the mucosal tissues and specifically play a role in the skin and in wound healing. Overall, these two studies combined illustrate how in mice, development and expansion of MAIT cells are tightly linked to exposure to commensal microbiota during a crucial early-life developmental stage. The studies further illustrate the additional complexity within the MAIT cells, and identify a subset with unique function in tissue repair.
