The mucosal immune system: recent developments and future directions in the pig

Area of Science:

• Immunology
• Animal Science
• Gastroenterology

Background:

• The mucosal immune system is crucial for controlling immune responses to pathogens and maintaining tolerance to harmless antigens.
• Advances in understanding regulatory T-cells, T-helper-17 cells, and epithelial-dendritic cell interactions highlight the complexity of mucosal immunity.
• While research tools are emerging in pigs, comprehensive understanding lags behind rodents and humans.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the current state of knowledge regarding the mucosal immune system in pigs.
• To evaluate the impact and interpretation of studies manipulating the pig mucosal immune system with prebiotics, probiotics, and feed additives.
• To identify future research directions for understanding pig mucosal immunity.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of studies on mucosal immunity in animals, with a focus on pigs.
• Analysis of research on regulatory T-cells, T-helper-17 cells, and cell interactions.
• Synthesis of findings from empirical studies on prebiotics, probiotics, and feed additives in pigs.

Main Results:

• Significant progress has been made in understanding mucosal immunity in rodents and humans, with emerging relevance in pigs.
• Numerous studies have investigated the effects of prebiotics, probiotics, and feed additives on the pig mucosal immune system.
• The efficacy of these manipulations can be highly dependent on specific environmental and husbandry conditions.

Conclusions:

• Further development of research systems and reagents is needed to fully elucidate mucosal immune mechanisms in pigs.
• Interpretation of studies manipulating the pig mucosal immune system must account for context-specific environmental and husbandry factors.
• Careful consideration is required to avoid unintended consequences when modulating the mucosal immune system in pigs.