The ability of the follicle-associated epithelium (FAE) of rat Peyer's patch to accumulate valine has been measured using a new technique of autoradiographic analysis. Maximum uptake of valine was achieved by enterocytes present in the dome region of the FAE. Valine uptake was not seen in enterocytes present on the lower slopes of the FAE or in follicle-associated crypts. The ability of the FAE...

The field of iron metabolism is moving rapidly. There have been significant advances in our understanding of how proteins carry out the process of iron absorption. The three main tissues involved in iron exchange are the enterocyte which contributes new iron to the system, the hepatocyte which stores and releases iron and the macrophages which recycles iron from effete red blood cells to the pl...

Background: Hephaestin is a multicopper ferroxidase required for basolateral transport of iron from enterocytes. Sex linked anaemia (sla) mice have a defect in the release of iron from intestinal enterocytes into the circulation due to an interstitial deletion in the hephaestin gene (heph). Results: We have demonstrated that hephaestin is primarily localised to a supranuclear compartment in bot...

During the suckling period, intestinal enterocytes are richly endowed with endosomes and lysosomes, which they presumably utilize for the uptake and intracellular digestion of milk proteins. By weaning, mature intestinal enterocytes replace those rich in lysosomes. We found that mouse enterocytes before weaning express high levels of two endolysosomal cation channels, mucolipins 3 and 1 -produc...

Translocation of bacteria across the intestinal barrier is important in the pathogenesis of systemic sepsis, although the mechanisms by which bacterial translocation occurs remain largely unknown. We hypothesized that bacterial translocation across the intact barrier occurs after internalization of the bacteria by enterocytes in a process resembling phagocytosis and that TLR4 is required for th...

Bacterial superantigens (SAgs) have been implicated in inflammatory disease, and SAg-treated mice have increased jejunal T cells. Here we show that T84 cells (a human epithelial cell line) display increased MCP-1 and RANTES mRNA expression and protein production in response to conditioned medium from Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin B (SEB; a model SAg)-activated immune cells. Also, MCP-1 and ...