Intestinal tuft cells: epithelial sentinels linking luminal cues to the immune system

François Gerbe (1) , Philippe Jay (1)

1 IGF - Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle

Epithelial tuft cells (also known as "brush" cells in the airway) were first identified morphologically, almost six decades ago in the trachea and gastro-intestinal tract, but their function remained mysterious until three almost simultaneous reports recently revealed their essential role in the initiation of immune type 2 responses. This is a new and exciting example of cooperation between the epithelial and haematopoietic compartments for the management of enteric parasite infections. Here we review tuft cell functions and markers, and anchors epithelial tuft cells within the current paradigm of type 2 immune responses.Mucosal Immunology advance online publication, 24 August 2016; doi:10.1038/mi.2016.68.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

François Gerbe, Philippe Jay. Intestinal tuft cells: epithelial sentinels linking luminal cues to the immune system. Mucosal Immunology, 2016, ⟨10.1038/mi.2016.68⟩. ⟨hal-01940967⟩