Mediators of Inflammation and Immune Responses in the Human Gastrointestinal Tract

Call for Papers

The gastrointestinal tract is continuously exposed to foreign antigens–mainly derived from the commensal microbiota and/or food antigens–but also to invading bacteria, virus, and/or tumoral antigens. Therefore, the immune system of the gut has a unique capacity to balance the mechanisms of immune response/tolerance in health and disease, and changes in such delicate balance are usually linked with the development of pathologies in the human gastrointestinal tract.

Despite its central role in health and disease, most of the current knowledge about mucosal immunology of the gastrointestinal tract is mainly obtained from murine models. Although the mechanisms of intestinal immunity in mouse and human have the same output, the specific pathways through which they are elicited are different. It is essential to fill in this gap in our current knowledge of the human immune system of the gastrointestinal tract. In this issue, we aim to gain depth into the current understanding of immune processes in the human gastrointestinal tract in health and disease. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Immunopathogenesis of human gastrointestinal diseases (celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal cancer, H. pylori, eosinophilic esophagitis, etc.)
• Inflammasome in intestinal inflammation and cancer
• Mediators of immune responses in different areas of the human gut
• Gastrointestinal inflammation and development of functional gastrointestinal disorders
• Clinical trials directed to control an abnormal immune response of human gastrointestinal diseases
• Protective effect of natural compounds on the gastrointestinal tract
• Immune homeostasis and/or mucosal tolerance in the human gastrointestinal tract
• Commensal microbiota in the human gut and its effect on gastrointestinal diseases (inflammatory bowel diseases, celiac disease, etc.) and/or peripheral tissues (multiple sclerosis, allergy, obesity, etc.)
• Immunogenetics of human gastrointestinal diseases

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mi/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/mi/git/ according to the following timetable:

Lead Guest Editor

• David Bernardo Ordiz, Antigen Presentation Research Group, Imperial College London/St Mark's Hospital, Harrow, UK

Guest Editors

• Amado Salvador Peña, Laboratory of Immunogenetics, Department of Medical Microbiology and Infection Control, VU University Medical Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Eduardo Arranz, Mucosal Immunology Laboratory, IBGM, CSIC, Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain