Gastrointestinal inflammation prevented by protein sorting factor found in cells lining the gut
Friday, October 14, 2011 - 10:01
in Biology & Nature
The gastrointestinal tract is lined with intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) that maintain gut health by keeping bacteria and pro-inflammatory immune cells from infiltrating gut tissues. Now, a team of researchers in Japan has shown that a protein in these cells, which is responsible for sorting many proteins to particular portions of the IEC surface, plays a key role in IEC modulation of gut inflammation.