Intravital visualization of interactions of murine Peyer's patch-resident dendritic cells with M cells

Abstract

The small intestine hosts specialized lymphoid structures, the Peyer's patches, that face the gut lumen and are overlaid with unique epithelial cells, called microfold (M) cells. M cells are considered to constitute an important route for antigen uptake in the mucosal immune system. Here, we used intravital microscopy to define immune cell populations, which are in close contact with M cells and potentially sample antigen. We present live evidence that DCs enter M cell pockets and highlight the abundance of mononuclear phagocytes in these structures. Taking advantage of the respective reporter animals, we focused on classical DCs that express Zbtb46 and analyzed how these cells interact with M cells in steady state and sample antigen for T cell activation in the Peyer's patches following challenge.