Dietary protein shapes the profile and repertoire of intestinal CD4+ T cells

This study shows in a polyclonal setting that routine exposure to food protein promotes accumulation of antigen-experienced CD4+ T cells in the intestinal epithelium, which acquire a cytotoxic tissue-resident transcriptional program. This process is disrupted upon either allergic sensitization or tolerance. Single CD4+ T cells from the small intestine epithelium or lamina propria of mice with different dietary and microbial manipulations; libraries are the antibody derived tags, gene expression and tcr sequencing.