Saturday, November 14, 2015

Gut-vascular barrier locks intestinal bacteria within its lymph tissue

This week journal Science published short study from research group from Italy showing the existence of gut-vascular barrier that restricts access of intestinal gut flora to body's internal tissues.

The authors showed that gut endothelial-specific constitutively active (Cre+) Wnt/β-catenin pathway prevented blood dissemination of S. typhimurium ΔAroA (aromatic amino acid-dependent mutant). However, translocation of S. typhimurium ΔAroA into intestinal payer patches (PP) or mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) were not affected by Wnt/β-catenin pathway.


Conversely, S. typhimurium deficient for virulence factor Spi2 (S. typhimurium ΔssaV) was unable to penetrate gut-vascular barrier and to disseminate to liver and spleen.


In vitro experiment confirmed that WT S. typhimurium targets Wnt/β-catenin pathway gene Axin2 in endothelial cells.

Finally, the authors showed celiac disease patients with increased liver damage (ALThi) expressed higher level of PV1, a marker of gut endothelial cell damage.


In summary, this study revealed that gut endothelial cells represent additional barrier that locks live bacteria within the borders of gut tissue. This knowledge could be exploited for therapeutic use.

David Usharauli

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