Human intestinal epithelial cells secrete an array of chemokines known to signal the trafficking of neutrophils and monocytes important in innate mucosal immunity. We hypothesized that intestinal epithelium may also have the capacity to play a role in signaling host adaptive immunity. The CC chemokine macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-3alpha/CCL20 is chemotactic for immature dendritic cells...

Effective antiretroviral therapy (ART) dramatically reduces AIDS-related complications, yet the life expectancy of long-term ART-treated HIV-infected patients remains shortened compared to that of uninfected controls, due to increased risk of non-AIDS related morbidities. Many propose that these complications result from translocated microbial products from the gut that stimulate systemic infla...

The intestinal crypt-niche interaction is thought to be essential to the function, maintenance, and proliferation of progenitor stem cells found at the bases of intestinal crypts. These stem cells are constantly renewing the intestinal epithelium by sending differentiated cells from the base of the crypts of Lieberkühn to the villus tips where they slough off into the intestinal lumen. The inte...

intraepithelial T lymphocytes (IEL) represent a major T cell population within the intestine of unclear functional relevance. The role of intestinal IEL was evaluated in the dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) induced mouse colitis model system. Large numbers of T cells, but not T cells, were localized at sites of DSS-induced epithelial cell damage. IEL in DSS treated mice expressed keratinocyte growt...

Glucocorticoids are anti-inflammatory steroids with important applications in the treatment of inflammatory diseases. Endogenous glucocorticoids are mainly produced by the adrenal glands, although there is increasing evidence for extra-adrenal sources. Recent findings show that intestinal crypt cells produce glucocorticoids, which contribute to the maintenance of intestinal immune homeostasis. ...

BACKGROUND & AIMS The embryonic small intestinal epithelium is highly proliferative, and although much is known about mechanisms regulating proliferation in the adult intestine, the mechanisms controlling epithelial cell proliferation in the developing intestine are less clear. GATA4, a transcription factor that regulates proliferation in other developing tissues, is first expressed early in th...

Gut-derived endotoxin and pathogenic bacteria have been proposed as important causative factors of morbidity and death during heat stroke. However, it is still unclear what kind of damage is induced by heat stress. In this study, the rat intestinal epithelial cell line (IEC-6) was treated with heat stress or a combination of heat stress and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). In addition, propofol, which...

background: despite the extensive information available in the literature, cell surface marker signature of human amniotic epithelial cells (haecs) remains controversial. the aim of the present study was to characterize immuno-phenotypic features, proliferative capacity and immunogenicity of haecs. we also tested whether expression of some cell surface markers is influenced by the type of tryps...

background and objective: basal cell carcinoma (bcc) and squamous cell carcinoma (scc) are two common tumors of the skin. in some cases, distinction between bcc and scc can be difficult. this study aimed to clarify this uncertainty through immunohistochemical analysis. in this respect, epithelial membrane antigen (ema) and ber-ep4 are the two immunohistochemical markers on which we focus in dif...

Epithelial barrier dysfunction has been implicated as one of the major contributors to the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease. The increase in intestinal permeability allows the translocation of luminal antigens across the intestinal epithelium, leading to the exacerbation of colitis. Thus, therapies targeted at specifically restoring tight junction barrier function are thought to have ...