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As a cold ends, a severe mucus cough starts. Sound familiar? Two studies now give explanations: First, crucial mechanisms of the mucus in both diseased and healthy airways; second, what happens in such chronic lung diseases as cystic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COPD. But to make progress, it's important to understand how the mucus clearance works," says Gunnar C.
The studies, published in European Respiratory Journal and Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight, describe how the normal lung is kept clean by long mucus bundles formed in glands are moved along the airways and thus "sweeping" and cleaning the surface.
When particles or irritant substances are inhaled, they temporarily bring the mucus bundles to a halt. Meanwhile, the cilia collect the debris onto the bundles, and these are then efficiently cleared out of the lungs when the bundles start moving again. In a lung infection or chronic lung disease, the lung mucus is transformed into a virtually immobile mucus layer against which the cilia are powerless.
This layer keeps bacteria away from the epithelial cells and thereby protecting it. Toward the end of a cold, the mucus layer needs to be coughed up, which explains why a cold ends with mucus coughing. But in certain types of chronic lung disease, such as cystic fibrosis or COPD, the mucus remains on the airway surface.
There, although the mucus layer essentially has a protective role, it accumulates bacteria that will slowly damage the lungs. Permissions Icon Permissions. Abstract The intestinal tract is inhabited by a tremendous number of microorganisms, termed the gut microbiota. Dietary fiber , gut microbiota , host—microbe interaction , inflammatory bowel disease , mucus , mucin , mucosal barrier , metabolic disease , probiotics , ulcerative colitis.
Figure 1. Open in new tab Download slide. Figure 2. Signals from the gut microbiota to distant organs in physiology and disease. Search ADS. Studies of mucus in mouse stomach, small intestine, and colon. Gastrointestinal mucus proteome reveals Muc2 and Muc5ac accompanied by a set of core proteins. Comparative study of the intestinal mucus barrier in normal and inflamed colon.
Bacteria penetrate the normally impenetrable inner colon mucus layer in both murine colitis models and patients with ulcerative colitis. A sentinel goblet cell guards the colonic crypt by triggering Nlrp6-dependent Muc2 secretion. Glycosylated MUC2 monomer and dimer from LS T cells are water-soluble, whereas larger MUC2 species formed early during biosynthesis are insoluble and contain nonreducible intermolecular bonds. Dimerization of the human MUC2 mucin in the endoplasmic reticulum is followed by a N-glycosylation-dependent transfer of the mono- and dimers to the Golgi apparatus.
The N terminus of the MUC2 mucin forms trimers that are held together within a trypsin-resistant core fragment. Calcium and pH-dependent packing and release of the gel-forming MUC2 mucin.
Secreted enteric antimicrobial activity localises to the mucus surface layer. Paneth cells, antimicrobial peptides and maintenance of intestinal homeostasis. The antibacterial lectin RegIIIgamma promotes the spatial segregation of microbiota and host in the intestine.
The inner of the two Muc2 mucin-dependent mucus layers in colon is devoid of bacteria. An ex vivo method for studying mucus formation, properties, and thickness in human colonic biopsies and mouse small and large intestinal explants. Calcium-activated chloride channel regulator 1 CLCA1 controls mucus expansion in colon by proteolytic activity. CARD9 impacts colitis by altering gut microbiota metabolism of tryptophan into aryl hydrocarbon receptor ligands. Tryptophan catabolites from microbiota engage aryl hydrocarbon receptor and balance mucosal reactivity via interleukin From dietary fiber to host physiology: short-chain fatty acids as key bacterial metabolites.
A gut bacterial pathway metabolizes aromatic amino acids into nine circulating metabolites. Lypd8 promotes the segregation of flagellated microbiota and colonic epithelia.
Gram-positive bacteria are held at a distance in the colon mucus by the lectin-like protein ZG Pre-epithelial mucus layer in the colon of conventional and germ-free rats. Histochemical, lectin-histochemical and morphometrical characteristics of intestinal goblet cells of germfree and conventional mice. A dietary fiber-deprived gut microbiota degrades the colonic mucus barrier and enhances pathogen susceptibility.
Nature of bacterial colonization influences transcription of mucin genes in mice during the first week of life. Normalization of host intestinal mucus layers requires long-term microbial colonization. Google Preview. Cross-talk between Akkermansia muciniphila and intestinal epithelium controls diet-induced obesity. Temperature gradient gel electrophoresis analysis of 16S rRNA from human fecal samples reveals stable and host-specific communities of active bacteria. A human gut microbial gene catalogue established by metagenomic sequencing. Assessment of microbial diversity in human colonic samples by 16S rDNA sequence analysis.
Human Microbiome Project Consortium. Structure, function and diversity of the healthy human microbiome. Disease-specific alterations in the enteric virome in inflammatory bowel disease. Metagenomic analysis of microbiome in colon tissue from subjects with inflammatory bowel diseases reveals interplay of viruses and bacteria. Mucosal glycan foraging enhances fitness and transmission of a saccharolytic human gut bacterial symbiont. Interactions of commensal and pathogenic microorganisms with the intestinal mucosal barrier.
Isolation and characterization of oligosaccharides from rat colonic mucus glycoprotein. Detailed O-glycomics of the Muc2 mucin from colon of wild-type, core 1- and core 3-transferase-deficient mice highlights differences compared with human MUC2. The glycosylation of rat intestinal Muc2 mucin varies between rat strains and the small and large intestine. Structural diversity and specific distribution of O-glycans in normal human mucins along the intestinal tract. Altered mucus glycosylation in core 1 O-glycan-deficient mice affects microbiota composition and intestinal architecture.
Colonic mucosa-associated microbiota is influenced by an interaction of Crohn disease and FUT2 Secretor genotype. Secretor genotype FUT2 gene is strongly associated with the composition of bifidobacteria in the human intestine. FUT2 genotype and secretory status are not associated with fecal microbial composition and inferred function in healthy subjects. ABO antigen and secretor statuses are not associated with gut microbiota composition in 1, twins.
A molecular sensor that allows a gut commensal to control its nutrient foundation in a competitive ecosystem.
Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron and Faecalibacterium prausnitziiinfluence the production of mucus glycans and the development of goblet cells in the colonic epithelium of a gnotobiotic model rodent. Fermentation of mucins and plant polysaccharides by anaerobic bacteria from the human colon.
Fermentation of mucin and plant polysaccharides by strains of Bacteroides from the human colon. Starving our microbial self: the deleterious consequences of a diet deficient in microbiota-accessible carbohydrates. Functional genomic and metabolic studies of the adaptations of a prominent adult human gut symbiont, bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, to the suckling period. Muc2 protects against lethal infectious colitis by disassociating pathogenic and commensal bacteria from the colonic mucosa. Citrobacter rodentium : infection, inflammation and the microbiota. Bifidobacteria or fiber protects against diet-induced microbiota-mediated colonic mucus deterioration.
Muc2-deficient mice spontaneously develop colitis, indicating that MUC2 is critical for colonic protection. Thickness of adherent mucus gel on colonic mucosa in humans and its relevance to colitis. Spatial organization and composition of the mucosal flora in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.
Urbanization and the gut microbiota in health and inflammatory bowel disease. A novel Ruminococcus gnavus clade enriched in inflammatory bowel disease patients.
1. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. Jun;10(6) doi: /nrgastro. Epub Mar Here, we provide an overview of the mucus system along the gastrointestinal tract and discuss the role of mucus in health and disease.
Utilisation of mucin glycans by the human gut symbiont Ruminococcus gnavus is strain-dependent. Lactobacillus reuteri increases mucus thickness and ameliorates dextran sulphate sodium-induced colitis in mice. Oral administration of viable Bifidobacterium pseudolongum strain Patronus modified colonic microbiota and increased mucus layer thickness in rat.
Akkermansia muciniphila gen.
Secretor genotype FUT2 gene is strongly associated with the composition of bifidobacteria in the human intestine. As M cells are specialized in sampling of microbial and dietary antigens from the intestinal lumen, the physical mucus barrier on top of these structures is penetrable to bacteria or may even be absent [ 15 , 23 ]. This indicates that other members in the complex microbial community are required to stimulate Muc2 expression or that a potential metabolic interaction between microbial species is required to produce the Muc2 -inducing signal. This suggests that a combination of genotype-determined glycan structure and disease status may affect the gut microbial community at the intestinal mucosa. Moreover, the increased consumption of a low-fiber Western-style diet in our modern society has recently been demonstrated to cause bacteria-mediated defects of the intestinal mucus layer. Doctors and people with CF can do several things to slow the progression of the disease and fight its complications. Within the endoplasmic reticulum of goblet cells, MUC2 monomers dimerize via their C-terminal disulphide bridges [ 9 ] and subsequently trimerize via intermolecular disulphide bridges through the characteristic N-terminal von Willebrand D-domains in the Golgi [ 10 ].
A purified membrane protein from Akkermansia muciniphila or the pasteurized bacterium improves metabolism in obese and diabetic mice. Selective stimulation of bifidobacteria in the human colon by oligofructose and inulin. Prebiotic inulin-type fructans induce specific changes in the human gut microbiota. Mechanisms underlying the resistance to diet-induced obesity in germ-free mice. Gut-derived lipopolysaccharide augments adipose macrophage accumulation but is not essential for impaired glucose or insulin tolerance in mice.
Intestinal mucosal adherence and translocation of commensal bacteria at the early onset of type 2 diabetes: molecular mechanisms and probiotic treatment.