{"doi":"10.1016/j.jcmgh.2020.02.002","title":"Swimming Against the Current: MAIT Cell Function Is Preserved in the Peritoneum of Advanced Liver Disease Patients","abstract":"Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells are a population of unconventional T cells displaying features of both the adaptive and the innate arms of the immune system. They are characterized by the expression of an evolutionary highly conserved invariant alpha chain (Vα7.2-Jα33 in humans) in combination with a biased repertoire of beta chains and respond to bacterial and yeast riboflavin metabolite ligands presented by the major histocompatibility complex Ib-molecule MR1. MAIT cells are enriched in the human liver and also account for 1%–10% of the T cells found in peripheral blood.1Provine N.M. Klenerman P. MAIT cells in health and disease.Annu Rev Immunol. 2020 Jan 27; ([E-pub ahead of print])Crossref PubMed Scopus (91) Google Scholar In the context of chronic inflammatory disorders, particularly advanced liver disease, the number of circulating MAIT cells drops and the remaining cells in blood and tissue were shown to display varying degrees of functional impairment. Microbial translocation from the gut is a common feature of chronic inflammatory diseases regardless of their origin, and it has been suggested that the constant exposure to bacterial riboflavin metabolites could result in hyperactivation, exhaustion, and ultimately cell death of MAIT cells.2Cosgrove C. Ussher J.E. Rauch A. Gärtner K. Kurioka A. Hühn M.H. Adelmann K. Kang Y.H. Fergusson J.R. Simmonds P. Goulder P. Hansen T.H. Fox J. Günthard H.F. Khanna N. Powrie F. Steel A. Gazzard B. Phillips R.E. Frater J. Uhlig H. Klenerman P. Early and nonreversible decrease of CD161++/MAIT cells in HIV infection.Blood. 2013; 121: 951-961Crossref PubMed Scopus (239) Google Scholar, 3Riva A. Patel V. Kurioka A. Jeffery H.C. Wright G. Tarff S. Shawcross D. Ryan J.M. Evans A. Azarian S. Bajaj J.S. Fagan A. Patel V. Mehta K. Lopez C. Simonova M. Katzarov K. Hadzhiolova T. Pavlova S. Wendon J.A. Oo Y.H. Klenerman P. Williams R. Chokshi S. Mucosa-associated invariant T cells link intestinal immunity with antibacterial immune defects in alcoholic liver disease.Gut. 2018; 67: 918-930Crossref PubMed Scopus (82) Google Scholar, 4Böttcher K. Rombous K. Saffioti F. Roccarina D. Rosselli M. Hall A. Luong T. Tsochatzis E.A. Thorburn D. Pinzani M. MAIT cells are chronically activated in patients with autoimmune liver disease and promote profibrogenic hepatic stellate cell activation.Hepatology. 2018; 68: 172-186Crossref PubMed Scopus (97) Google Scholar, 5Jeffery H.C. van Wilgenburg B. Kurioka A. Parekh K. Stirling K. Roberts S. Dutton E.E. Hunter S. Geh D. Braitch M.K. Rajanayagam J. Iqbal T. Pinkney T. Brown R. Withers D.R. Adams D.H. Klenerman P. Oo Y.H. Biliary epithelium and liver B cells exposed to bacteria activate intrahepatic MAIT cells through MR1.J Hepatol. 2016; 64: 1118-1127Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (129) Google Scholar, 6Rouxel O. Da Silva J. Beaudoin L. Nel I. Tard C. Cagninacci L. Kiaf B. Oshima M. Diedisheim M. Salou M. Corbett A. Rossjohn J. McCluskey J. Scharfmann R. Battaglia M. Polak M. Lantz O. Beltrand J. Lehuen A. Cytotoxic and regulatory roles of mucosal-associated invariant T cells in type 1 diabetes.Nat Immunol. 2017; 18: 1321-1331Crossref PubMed Scopus (147) Google Scholar While MAIT cell dysfunction in blood and liver tissue during advanced liver disease is well established, it is less clear how and if MAIT cells would respond within other parts of the body when facing bacterial pathogens. This is a relevant question, as spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) represents one of the leading causes of death in liver cirrhosis patients. In the current issue of Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Ibidapo-Obe et al7Ibidapo-Obe O. Stengel S. Köse-Vogel N. Quickert S. Reuken P.A. Busch M. Bauer M. Stallmach A. Bruns T. Mucosal-associated invariant T cells redistribute to the peritoneal cavity during spontaneous bacterial peritonitis and contribute to peritoneal inflammation.Cell Mol Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2020; 9: 661-677Ab","journal":"Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology","year":2020,"id":111637,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":4,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9637,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":106117,"name":"Paul Klenerman","orcid":"0000-0003-4307-9161","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":332068,"name":"Carl-Philipp Hackstein","orcid":"0000-0002-0821-5204","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":10,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:13:09.353152Z","pmid":"32119829","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}