A simple coculture system shows mutualism between anaerobic faecalibacteria and epithelial Caco-2 cells.

Most gut bacteria are obligate anaerobes and are important for human health. However, little mechanistic insight is available on the health benefits of specific anaerobic gut bacteria. A main obstacle in generating such knowledge is the lack of simple and robust coculturing methods for anaerobic bacteria and oxygen-requiring human cells.