Regional specialization within the mammalian respiratory immune system.

The respiratory tract is exposed to infection from inhaled pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, and fungi. So far, a comprehensive assessment that integrates common and distinct aspects of the immune response along different areas of the respiratory tract has been lacking. Here, we discuss key recent findings regarding anatomical, functional, and microbial factors driving regional immune adaptation in the mammalian respiratory system, how they differ between mice and humans, and the similarities and differences with the gastrointestinal tract. We demonstrate that, under evolutionary pressure, mammals evolved spatially organized immune defenses that vary between the upper and lower respiratory tract. Overall, we propose that the functional specialization of the immune response along the respiratory tract has fundamental implications for the management of infectious or inflammatory diseases.

• Publication year

  2024

• Venue

  Trends in immunology

• Publication date

  2024-10-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.it.2024.09.011PMID 39438172PMCID PMC11560516
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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