The colon is primarily responsible for absorbing fluids. It contains a large number of microorganisms including fungi, which are enriched in its distal segment. The colonic mucosa must therefore tightly regulate fluid influx to control absorption of fungal metabolites, which can be toxic to epithelial cells and lead to barrier dysfunction. How this is achieved remains unknown. Here, we describe a mechanism by which the innate immune system allows rapid quality-check of absorbed fluids to avoid intoxication of colonocytes. This mechanism relies on a population of distal colon macrophages that are equipped with "balloon-like" protrusions (BLPs) inserted in the epithelium, which sample absorbed fluids. In the absence of macrophages or BLPs, epithelial cells keep absorbing fluids containing fungal products, leading to their death and subsequent loss of epithelial barrier integrity. These results reveal an unexpected and essential role of macrophages in the maintenance of colon-microbiota interactions in homeostasis.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.5802/crbiol.67DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

absorbing fluids
8
epithelial cells
8
absorbed fluids
8
roles macrophages
4
macrophages colon
4
colon homeostasis
4
homeostasis colon
4
colon responsible
4
responsible absorbing
4
fluids
4

Similar Publications

Metabolic activity controls the emergence of coherent flows in microbial suspensions.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

January 2025

Experimental Physics V, Department of Physics, University of Bayreuth, D-95447 Bayreuth, Germany.

Photosynthetic microbes have evolved and successfully adapted to the ever-changing environmental conditions in complex microhabitats throughout almost all ecosystems on Earth. In the absence of light, they can sustain their biological functionalities through aerobic respiration, and even in anoxic conditions through anaerobic metabolic activity. For a suspension of photosynthetic microbes in an anaerobic environment, individual cellular motility is directly controlled by its photosynthetic activity, i.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Packed columns are commonly used in post-combustion processes to capture CO emissions by providing enhanced contact area between a CO-laden gas and CO-absorbing solvent. To study and optimize solvent-based post-combustion carbon capture systems (CCSs), computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can be used to model the liquid-gas countercurrent flow hydrodynamics in these columns and derive key determinants of CO-capture efficiency. However, the large design space of these systems hinders the application of CFD for design optimization due to its high computational cost.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have emerged as solubilizing media of intense interest due partly to their easily tailorable physicochemical properties. Extensive H-bonding between the constituents in a two-constituent system is the major driving force for the formation of the DES. Addition of ethanolamine (MEA), a compound having H-bonding capabilities, to the DESs composed of a terpene [menthol (Men) or thymol (Thy)] and a fatty acid [-decanoic acid (DA)] results in an unprecedented increase in dynamic viscosity due to the extensive rearrangement in the H-bonding network and other interactions within the system, while the liquid mixture still behaves as a Newtonian fluid.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aim: Extracellular particles (EPs) are produced/secreted by cells from all domains of life and are present in all body fluids, brain, and gut. EPs consist of extracellular vesicles (EVs) made up of exosomes, microvesicles, and other membranous vesicles; and extracellular condensates (ECs) that are non-membranous carriers of lipid-protein-nucleic acid aggregates. The purity of EVs|ECs, which ultimately depends on the isolation method used to obtain them is critical, particularly EVs|ECs from the gastrointestinal (GI) tract that is colonized by a huge number of enteric bacteria.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

3D polycatenated architected materials.

Science

January 2025

Division of Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.

Architected materials derive their properties from the geometric arrangement of their internal structural elements. Their designs rely on continuous networks of members to control the global mechanical behavior of the bulk. In this study, we introduce a class of materials that consist of discrete concatenated rings or cage particles interlocked in three-dimensional networks, forming polycatenated architected materials (PAMs).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!