ヒト腸管に存在する免疫細胞の機能と炎症性腸疾患との関連の解析

抄録

For understanding pathology of inflammatory bowel disease, function analysis of immune cells in the human intestinal tract is essential, but many points remain unclear. In recent years we have developed a method to isolate immunocompetent cells from the human intestinal tract. The obtained HLA-DR positive cells could be classified into 4 groups by CD14, CD11c, CD163. The cell population of CD14⁺CD163^low produced inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6, IL23p19, TNF, and the ability to induce Th17 cells was confirmed. CD14⁺CD163^low cells were found in not only inflamed, but also non-inflamed parts of the Crohn’s disease intestinal tract, and the expression of inflammatory cytokines was enhanced and the Th17 cell-inducing ability was markedly enhanced as compared with the normal intestinal tract.

In addition, CD14⁺CD163^highCD160^high cells, a subpopulation of CD14⁺CD163^high cells, inhibited CD14⁺CD163^low cell dependent T cell proliferation. Through these cell population analyses, it was suggested that these cell groups could be a target in the treatment of IBD.