Department of Dermatology, University Medical Center, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
Front Immunol. 2022 May 26;13:912529. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.912529. eCollection 2022.
Over the past decades, atopic diseases, including allergic rhinitis, asthma, atopic dermatitis, and food allergy, increased strongly worldwide, reaching up to 50% in industrialized countries. These diseases are characterized by a dominating type 2 immune response and reduced numbers of allergen-specific regulatory T (Treg) cells. Conventional allergen-specific immunotherapy is able to tip the balance towards immunoregulation. However, in mouse models of allergy adaptive transfer of Treg cells did not always lead to convincing beneficial results, partially because of limited stability of their regulatory phenotype activity. Besides genetic predisposition, it has become evident that environmental factors like a westernized lifestyle linked to modern sanitized living, the early use of antibiotics, and the consumption of unhealthy foods leads to epithelial barrier defects and dysbiotic microbiota, thereby preventing immune tolerance and favoring the development of allergic diseases. Epigenetic modification of Treg cells has been described as one important mechanism in this context. In this review, we summarize how environmental factors affect the number and function of Treg cells in allergic inflammation and how this knowledge can be exploited in future allergy prevention strategies as well as novel therapeutic approaches.
在过去几十年中，特应性疾病（包括过敏性鼻炎、哮喘、特应性皮炎和食物过敏）在全球范围内呈强烈上升趋势，在工业化国家中达到了 50%。这些疾病的特征是 2 型免疫反应占主导地位，过敏原特异性调节性 T（Treg）细胞数量减少。传统的过敏原特异性免疫疗法能够使免疫调节达到平衡。然而，在过敏的小鼠模型中，Treg 细胞的适应性转移并不总是导致令人信服的有益结果，部分原因是其调节表型活性的稳定性有限。除了遗传易感性外，环境因素也变得明显，如与现代卫生生活方式相关的西方化生活方式、早期使用抗生素和不健康食物的消费导致上皮屏障缺陷和菌群失调，从而阻止免疫耐受并促进过敏疾病的发展。Treg 细胞的表观遗传修饰被描述为这种情况下的一个重要机制。在这篇综述中，我们总结了环境因素如何影响过敏性炎症中 Treg 细胞的数量和功能，以及这些知识如何在未来的过敏预防策略以及新的治疗方法中得到利用。
