Oral tolerance of food

The gut-associated lymphoid tissue is the specialized arm of the immune system responsible for distinguishing innocuous dietary nutrients, self-proteins, and gut flora from pathogens. Oral tolerance is the active immunologic response to innocuous ingested antigens that leads to a systemic tolerance for that antigen. This process holds great promise for dealing with the host of immune disorders that occur when an inappropriate and destructive immune response is induced. Improved therapies for disorders such as autoimmune disease and allergy are being actively investigated.