Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2017 Mar 14:8:258.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2017.00258. eCollection 2017.

Type I and III Interferon in the Gut: Tight Balance between Host Protection and Immunopathology

Johanna Pott  1 , Silvia Stockinger  2
Affiliations
Review

Type I and III Interferon in the Gut: Tight Balance between Host Protection and Immunopathology

Johanna Pott et al. Front Immunol. .

Abstract

The intestinal mucosa forms an active interface to the outside word, facilitating nutrient and water uptake and at the same time acts as a barrier toward the highly colonized intestinal lumen. A tight balance of the mucosal immune system is essential to tolerate harmless antigens derived from food or commensals and to effectively defend against potentially dangerous pathogens. Interferons (IFN) provide a first line of host defense when cells detect an invading organism. Whereas type I IFN were discovered almost 60 years ago, type III IFN were only identified in the early 2000s. It was initially thought that type I IFN and type III IFN performed largely redundant functions. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that type III IFN exert distinct and non-redundant functions compared to type I IFN, especially in mucosal tissues. Here, we review recent progress made in unraveling the role of type I/III IFN in intestinal mucosal tissue in the steady state, in response to mucosal pathogens and during inflammation.

Keywords: IFN-λ; coeliac disease; colitis; enteropathogens; inflammatory bowel diseases; interferon; intestinal mucosa; type 1 IFN.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cell-type-specific responsiveness to type I interferons (IFN) and type III IFN at the intestinal mucosa. (A) C57BL/6 mice were injected with IFN-β (1,000 U) (middle panel) or IFN-λ (1 μg) (right panel) and 3 h later, the small intestine was processed for histological assessment. Staining was performed for the interferon-stimulated gene IFIT3 (red) as a marker for IFN response and for the epithelial cell marker E-cadherin (green). (B) Schematic of the IFN production and responsiveness at the intestinal mucosa. When type I IFN levels are high, lamina propria cells readily respond with a strong IFN response whereas IECs are rather unresponsive but might respond under certain conditions [(A) middle panel; (B) left panel]. In contrast, IECs are the most responsive cells to type III IFN (A,B) right panel. Most virus-infected cells express type I IFN. Hematopoietic cells, such as plasmacytoid dendritic cells and macrophages produce the highest amounts of type I IFN whereas IECs seem to express preferentially type III IFN. T, T cell; DC, dendritic cell; MΦ, macrophage; IEC, intestinal epithelial cell.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Pott J, Hornef M. Innate immune signalling at the intestinal epithelium in homeostasis and disease. EMBO Rep (2012) 13(8):684–98.10.1038/embor.2012.96 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hooper LV. Epithelial cell contributions to intestinal immunity. Adv Immunol (2015) 126:129–72.10.1016/bs.ai.2014.11.003 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Decker T, Muller M, Stockinger S. The yin and yang of type I interferon activity in bacterial infection. Nat Rev Immunol (2005) 5(9):675–87.10.1038/nri1684 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Stockinger S, Decker T. Novel functions of type I interferons revealed by infection studies with Listeria monocytogenes. Immunobiology (2008) 213(9–10):889–97.10.1016/j.imbio.2008.07.020 - DOI - PubMed
    1. McNab F, Mayer-Barber K, Sher A, Wack A, O’Garra A. Type I interferons in infectious disease. Nat Rev Immunol (2015) 15(2):87–103.10.1038/nri3787 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources