MicrobeWorld

Intestinal permeability and the translocation of bacteria, viruses and antigens through the mucosal epithelium seems to play a role in many illnesses from celiac disease over diabetes to HIV and immune activation. Do we take into account that intestinal permeability could play a very important role for disease while at the same time does not receive the recognition it maybe deserves?

"Exposure to HIV-1 directly impairs mucosal epithelial barrier integrity allowing microbial translocation.
Nazli A, Chan O, Dobson-Belaire WN, Ouellet M, Tremblay MJ, Gray-Owen SD, Arsenault AL, Kaushic C.

Significant upregulation of inflammatory cytokines, including TNF-alpha, were seen in both intestinal and genital epithelial cells following exposure to HIV-1. Neutralization of TNF-alpha reversed the reduction in TERs. The disruption in barrier functions was associated with viral and bacterial translocation across the epithelial monolayers. Collectively, our data shows that mucosal epithelial cells respond directly to envelope glycoprotein of HIV-1 by upregulating inflammatory cytokines that lead to impairment of barrier functions. The increased permeability could be responsible for small but significant crossing of mucosal epithelium by virus and bacteria present in the lumen of mucosa. This mechanism could be particularly relevant to mucosal transmission of HIV-1 as well as immune activation seen in HIV-1 infected individuals.

PMID: 20386714 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]"