Development of a Caco-2-based intestinal mucosal model to study intestinal barrier properties and bacteria-mucus interactions.

ABSTRACT: The intestinal mucosal barrier is a dynamic system that allows nutrient uptake, stimulates healthy microbe-host interactions, and prevents invasion by pathogens. The mucosa consists of epithelial cells connected by cellular junctions that regulate the passage of nutrients covered by a mucus layer that plays an important role in host-microbiome interactions. Mimicking the intestinal mucosa for in vitro assays, particularly the generation of a mucus layer, has proven to be challenging. The intestinal cell-line Caco-2 is widely used in academic and industrial laboratories due to its capacity to polarize, form an apical brush border, and reproducibly grow into confluent cell layers in different culture systems. However, under normal culture conditions, Caco-2 cultures lack a mucus layer

SUBMITTER: Floor E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11702969 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature