Elsevier

Mucosal Immunology

Volume 6, Issue 5, September 2013, Pages 1027-1037
Mucosal Immunology

Article
The functional maturation of M cells is dramatically reduced in the Peyer's patches of aged mice

https://doi.org/10.1038/mi.2012.141Get rights and content
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Abstract

The transcytosis of antigens across the follicle-associated epithelium (FAE) of Peyer's patches by microfold cells (M cells) is important for the induction of efficient immune responses to mucosal antigens. The mucosal immune response is compromised by ageing, but effects on M cells were unknown. We show that M-cell density in the FAE of aged mice was dramatically reduced. As a consequence, aged Peyer's patches were significantly deficient in their ability to transcytose particulate lumenal antigen across the FAE. Ageing specifically impaired the expression of Spi-B and the downstream functional maturation of M cells. Ageing also dramatically impaired C-C motif chemokine ligand 20 expression by the FAE. As a consequence, fewer B cells were attracted towards the FAE, potentially reducing their ability to promote M-cell maturation. Our study demonstrates that ageing dramatically impedes the functional maturation of M cells, revealing an important ageing-related defect in the mucosal immune system's ability to sample lumenal antigens.

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Published online: 30 1 2013

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL is linked to the online version of the paper

A Kobayashi and D S Donaldson: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Supplementary information The online version of this article (doi:10.1038/mi.2012.141) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.