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Mucus barrier, mucins and gut microbiota: the expected slimy partners?

The gastrointestinal tract is often considered as a key organ involved in the digestion of food and providing nutrients to the body for proper maintenance. However, this system is composed of organs that are extremely complex. Among the different parts, the intestine is viewed as an incredible surfa...

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Autores principales: Paone, Paola, Cani, Patrice D
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7677487/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32917747
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2020-322260
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author Paone, Paola
Cani, Patrice D
author_facet Paone, Paola
Cani, Patrice D
author_sort Paone, Paola
collection PubMed
description The gastrointestinal tract is often considered as a key organ involved in the digestion of food and providing nutrients to the body for proper maintenance. However, this system is composed of organs that are extremely complex. Among the different parts, the intestine is viewed as an incredible surface of contact with the environment and is colonised by hundreds of trillions of gut microbes. The role of the gut barrier has been studied for decades, but the exact mechanisms involved in the protection of the gut barrier are various and complementary. Among them, the integrity of the mucus barrier is one of the first lines of protection of the gastrointestinal tract. In the past, this ‘slimy’ partner was mostly considered a simple lubricant for facilitating the progression of the food bolus and the stools in the gut. Since then, different researchers have made important progress, and currently, the regulation of this mucus barrier is gaining increasing attention from the scientific community. Among the factors influencing the mucus barrier, the microbiome plays a major role in driving mucus changes. Additionally, our dietary habits (ie, high-fat diet, low-fibre/high-fibre diet, food additives, pre- probiotics) influence the mucus at different levels. Given that the mucus layer has been linked with the appearance of diseases, proper knowledge is highly warranted. Here, we debate different aspects of the mucus layer by focusing on its chemical composition, regulation of synthesis and degradation by the microbiota as well as some characteristics of the mucus layer in both physiological and pathological situations.
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spelling pubmed-76774872020-11-30 Mucus barrier, mucins and gut microbiota: the expected slimy partners? Paone, Paola Cani, Patrice D Gut Recent Advances in Basic Science The gastrointestinal tract is often considered as a key organ involved in the digestion of food and providing nutrients to the body for proper maintenance. However, this system is composed of organs that are extremely complex. Among the different parts, the intestine is viewed as an incredible surface of contact with the environment and is colonised by hundreds of trillions of gut microbes. The role of the gut barrier has been studied for decades, but the exact mechanisms involved in the protection of the gut barrier are various and complementary. Among them, the integrity of the mucus barrier is one of the first lines of protection of the gastrointestinal tract. In the past, this ‘slimy’ partner was mostly considered a simple lubricant for facilitating the progression of the food bolus and the stools in the gut. Since then, different researchers have made important progress, and currently, the regulation of this mucus barrier is gaining increasing attention from the scientific community. Among the factors influencing the mucus barrier, the microbiome plays a major role in driving mucus changes. Additionally, our dietary habits (ie, high-fat diet, low-fibre/high-fibre diet, food additives, pre- probiotics) influence the mucus at different levels. Given that the mucus layer has been linked with the appearance of diseases, proper knowledge is highly warranted. Here, we debate different aspects of the mucus layer by focusing on its chemical composition, regulation of synthesis and degradation by the microbiota as well as some characteristics of the mucus layer in both physiological and pathological situations. BMJ Publishing Group 2020-12 2020-09-11 /pmc/articles/PMC7677487/ /pubmed/32917747 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2020-322260 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
spellingShingle Recent Advances in Basic Science
Paone, Paola
Cani, Patrice D
Mucus barrier, mucins and gut microbiota: the expected slimy partners?
title Mucus barrier, mucins and gut microbiota: the expected slimy partners?
title_full Mucus barrier, mucins and gut microbiota: the expected slimy partners?
title_fullStr Mucus barrier, mucins and gut microbiota: the expected slimy partners?
title_full_unstemmed Mucus barrier, mucins and gut microbiota: the expected slimy partners?
title_short Mucus barrier, mucins and gut microbiota: the expected slimy partners?
title_sort mucus barrier, mucins and gut microbiota: the expected slimy partners?
topic Recent Advances in Basic Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7677487/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32917747
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2020-322260
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