Restoring mucosal tolerance by non-digestible oligosaccharides under inflammatory conditions : a key role for galectins

Abstract

The prevalence of inflammatory diseases, including allergy and IBD, are rapidly increasing in Western society. There is a strong need to develop novel preventive and therapeutic strategies to manage these diseases as there is currently no cure. Understanding the immune system and selecting appropriate immune modulators is crucial for generating safe, preventive and potentially therapeutic treatment strategies. This thesis aims at understanding the mucosal immune system of the intestine and modulation of the GALT through observations on changes in immune cell subsets and function resulting from dietary intervention using specific non- digestible oligosaccharides to induce immunological tolerance