The gut environment as instructor of immunity and allergy development

The human immune system is remarkably well developed at birth, but continues to mature during early years.

This early period will imprint immune function and thereby influences our health status for many years, maybe for our entire lifespan.

We know that the gut environment instructs immune maturation in mice, but there is still a large knowledge gap regarding how this works in humans.Our work is based on the hypothesis that immune development in early life is influenced by the gut environment and that this can increase or decrease the risk for subsequent allergic disease.

We perform most of our work in material collected from two unique clinical cohorts, where longitudinal studies of immune development and function, gut environment and allergy are possible.

We aim to study the following:T-helper (Th) cell polarization in relation to allergy development and the gut environment.Epigenetic imprinting of dendritic cells (DCs) mediated by the gut environment and its consequences for DC-T cell crosstalk.Microbe-derived vesicles and how they influence peripheral and gut immunity.Murine in vivo models for proof-of concept studies.Our research provides a better understanding of how the immune system develops over time, how it deviates in allergic conditions, how it is modulated by immunotherapy, but also how it is influenced by the gut environment and the mechanisms behind this.

This can be used to develop effective non-invasive prevention- and treatment strategies in the future.