Deciphering the Mechanism that Regulates Mucus secretion in the Intestine

A group of researchers, led by Dr. Shai Bel from the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine at Bar-Ilan University, published a groundbreaking article in which they crack the mechanism controlling mucus secretion from intestinal goblet cells. Intestinal mucus plays a crucial role in the interaction between the host and its microbiota, separating the microbiome from the intestine itself. Damage to it is a hallmark, and perhaps the cause, of a variety of inflammatory bowel diseases. In their work, the researchers demonstrated that autophagy, an intracellular process responsible for the recycling of cellular components, regulates mucus secretion from goblet cells by alleviating endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in a microbiota-dependent manner. The research, recently published in the prestigious journal "Cell Host & Microbe", is gaining resonance in the scientific community, and an article was dedicated to this work in "Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology", the leading journal in the field of Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

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Link to the article in "Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology"