Investigators have a renewed interest in oral tolerance given its application to human disease. This has created an impetus to understand the basic mechanisms of oral tolerance in modern immunologic terms. The purpose of the conference is to present a forum for current understanding of oral tolerance. This is especially germane as oral tolerance is now being used in the treatment of autoimmune diseases in humans. Despite this resurgence of interest, the mechanisms underlying tolerance induction have been incompletely characterized. With this background, several investigators initiated the studies attempting to utilize induction of suppression in the gut to treat a variety of induced inflammatory diseases as models of autoimmunity. The results of these studies have opened the door for treatment of human disease; however, the preliminary studies suggest that oral tolerance in humans is quite different. Rapid growth in this area coupled with advances of regulatory mechanisms and mucosal immune responses are the impetus for a conference on the mechanisms and applications of oral tolerance. The conference will begin with lectures that will set the tone for the meeting by Dr. Per Brandtzaeg about the history of oral tolerance. The sessions are divided, going from very basic to clinically relevant topics. The first session dealing with the very unique aspects of mucosal immunity includes high quality speakers such as Drs. Eugene Butcher, Jeffrey Bluestone, Leo LeFrancois and Lloyd Mayer. The topics will include lymphocyte homing, intraepithelial lymphocyte phenotype and function, regulation of IgA as well as antigen presentation. The following session will focus on the mechanisms that are involved in induction of oral tolerance including tolerance induction and suppression, clonal anergy, the nature of the antigen and cytokine regulation. These lectures will be followed by a discussion section. The last two sections will include the application of oral tolerance, the treatment of autoimmune diseases, including several animal models of disease EAE, multiple sclerosis, collagen induced arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, uveitis and diabetes. There is an emphasis on the inclusion of young investigators with several of the people on the program being newly emerging scientists in this field.
