The Role of Intestinal Mucosal Barrier in Autoimmune Disease: A Potential Target

Abstract

Autoimmune diseases are a series of diseases involving multiple tissues and organs, characterized by the over production of abnormal multiple antibodies. Although most studies support that the impaired immune balance participates in the development of autoimmune diseases, the specific pathogenesis of it is not fully understood. Intestinal immunity, especially the intestinal mucosal barrier has become a research hotspot, which is considered to be an upstream mechanism leading to the impaired immune balance. As an important defense barrier, the intestinal mucosal barrier regulates and maintains the homeostasis of internal environment. Once the intestinal barrier function is impaired under the effect of multiple factors, it will destroy the immune homeostasis, trigger inflammatory response, and participate in the development of autoimmune diseases in the final. However, the mechanism of the intestinal mucosal barrier how to regulate the homeostasis and inflammation is not clear. Some studies suggest that it maintains the balance of immune homeostasis through the zonulin pathway, intestinal microbiome, and Toll-like receptor signaling pathway. Our review focused on the composition and the function of the intestinal mucosal barrier to describe the research progress of it in regulating the immune homeostasis and inflammation, and also pointed that the intestinal mucosal barrier was the potential targets in the treatment of autoimmune diseases.

Total Flavonoids of Rhizoma Drynariae Mitigates Aflatoxin B1-Induced Liver Toxicity in Chickens via Microbiota-Gut-Liver Axis Interaction Mechanisms

“…The intestinal physical barrier is a complete intestinal epithelial structure composed of intestinal epithelial cells and tight junctions [ 45 ]. The tight junction is a complex protein system formed by the interaction of a series of transmembrane proteins and peripheral proteins, which can be regulated in many ways [ 46 ].…”

Human Amniotic Mesenchymal Stem Cells Alleviate aGVHD after allo-HSCT by Regulating Interactions between Gut Microbiota and Intestinal Immunity

“…Intercommunication between the host and gut microbiota at the intestinal barrier regulate mucosal and systemic immune responses and, in pathological states, may result in aGVHD [6,45,46]. It suggested that the gut microbiota is closely related to the expression of tight junction proteins [47]. The present study showed that the mRNA expression of TJs ZO-1 and Occludin was negatively correlative to the relative abundance of harmful bacteria whereas had a positive correlation to beneficial bacteria, indicated that the gut microbiota was important to maintain the integrity of the intestinal barrier.…”

Effects of cysteine addition to low-fishmeal diets on the growth, anti-oxidative stress, intestine immunity, and Streptococcus agalactiae resistance in juvenile golden pompano (Trachinotus ovatus)

“…Similarly, our results showed that exogenous cysteine supplementation at 0.6% and 1.2% greatly improved intestinal villus length and muscular thickness, thus effectively alleviating the weakening of the intestinal physical barrier associated with low-fishmeal diets. Alterations in the intestinal physical barrier typically accompany changes in the abundance of intestinal flora ( 52 , 53 ) and expression of intestinal immune-related genes ( 54 ). Therefore, we propose that the protective effect of cysteine on the intestinal physical barrier of golden pompano may be correlated with increased abundance of intestinal flora and high expression of intestinal antioxidant stress- and immune-related genes.…”