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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Mucosal Immunity
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1553533
This article is part of the Research Topic Pulmonary Immunity: Role of Inducible Bronchus-associated Lymphoid Tissue in Lung Diseases View all articles

Bronchus-Associated Lymphoid Tissue in Lung Transplantation: A Facilitator of Rejection or Regulator of Tolerance?

Provisionally accepted
  • Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The role of bronchus-associated lymphoid tissue (BALT) in the regulation of immune responses to transplanted lungs remains an area of interest and controversy. Early studies in a rat pulmonary transplant model suggested BALT may accelerate rejection of grafts by inducing a local and systemic inflammatory response. Such observations were corroborated in intrapulmonary tracheal transplant models in the rat. While some human studies have described the presence of BALT in grafts that have been chronically rejected, others did not observe an association between induction of BALT and adverse outcomes. More recent investigations have found that BALT, enriched in immunoregulatory cell populations, is induced in tolerant mouse lung allografts, suggesting that such structures may be protective against rejection. Thus, the role of BALT in lung transplantation biology is complex. Insights gained from studies that focus on the role of BALT in lung transplantation may be harnessed to develop new therapies.

    Keywords: Bronchus associated lymphatic tissue (BALT), lung transplanation, rejection, tolerance, Foxp3 regulatory T cells +

    Received: 30 Dec 2024; Accepted: 20 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Wein, Liu and Kreisel. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Daniel Kreisel, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, United States

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