PMC

Citrobacter rodentium is a naturally occurring mouse pathogen that is widely used to model infections with attaching- and effacing lesion-inducing pathogens in humans (e.g., enteropathogenic and enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli). After enteric infection of mice with this pathogen, GM-CSF is produced in the colon mucosa. (A) GM-CSF enhances DC survival by decreasing DC apoptosis. (B) GM-CSF, directly or indirectly, induces secretion of the chemoattractant cytokine CCL22 by intestinal epithelial cells, which has a major role in the recruitment and localization of CD11c⁺ DCs to the subepithelial region of surface epithelial cells.
DC: Dendritic cell; GM-CSF: Granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor; IEC: Intestinal epithelial cell.