Intestinal Epithelial Expression of MHCII Determines Severity of Chemical, T-Cell–Induced, and Infectious Colitis in Mice

Background & Aims Intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) provide a barrier that separates the mucosal immune system from the luminal microbiota. IECs constitutively express low levels of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II proteins, which are upregulated upon exposure to interferon gamma. We investigated the effects of deleting MHCII proteins specifically in mice with infectious, dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)–, and T-cell–induced colitis....