Abstract: Food allergy is one of the most important problems in food safety, and most food allergy events occur in the gastrointestinal tract. A series of immune responses are initiated in the gut, since some digested peptides pass through the barrier of intestinal epithelial cells and enter the intestinal mucosa, where they are presented to relevant immune cells. In this review, the roles of intestinal epithelial cells, dendritic cells, B lymphocytes and CD4+ T lymphocytes in the sensitization of digested peptides at the intestinal mucosa are discussed, which will provide valuable information to explore the underlying mechanisms of gastrointestinal immunity during food allergy development.

Key words: food allergy, intestinal mucosa, intestinal epithelial cells, dendritic cells, B lymphocytes, CD4+ T lymphocytes