Eotaxin role in gastrointestinal inflammation

Eosinophils have been implicated in the pathogenesis of gastrointestinal inflammation but the signalling processes involved in the accumulation of eosinophils have not been fully established. In the April Nature Immunology Simon Hogan and colleagues from the Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, US and the Australian National University, Canberra describe the pathological consequences of eosinophilic inflammation and the involvement of eotaxin in the accumulation of eosinophils in the gut.

They studied normal mice and mice deficient in eotaxin and found that oral exposure of normal mice to enteric-coated antigen induces an extensive T helper 2-associated eosinophilic inflammatory response. Inflammation was observed in the oesophagus, stomach, small intestine and Peyer's patches and was associated with the development of gastric dysmotility, gastromegaly and cachexia. Electron microscopy identified eosinophils proximal to damaged axons, indicating that eosinophils are implicated in the dysmotility response. But mice deficient in eotaxin had an impaired eosinophil recruitment...