Speakers

BCI Seminar – “The MUC2 Mucin and the Inner Mucus Layer as an Innate Immune Mechanism that Inhibits Inflammation and Ulcerative Colitis”
presented by Dr Gunnar C. HANSSON
(M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Chairman Swedish Mass Spectrometry Society (SMSS) Department of Medical Biochemistry
University of Gothenburg Medicinaregatan 9A 413 90 Gothenburg
SWEDEN)
Monday, November 26 , 2018 at 12 :00
Room Auditorium François Jacob
Invited by Marc LECUIT & Olivier DISSON
(marc.lecuit@pasteur.fr & Olivier.disson@pasteur.fr)
Abstract :
Our studies of the MUC2 mucin lead to the discovery 2008 of two mucus layers in colon where the inner is normally impenetrable to bacteria. This has opened a new research area and changed the way we understand how the host can tolerate the large number of bacteria in the gut. We have further learnt that mucins are packed highly organized inside the goblet cell granule. Comparing identical mice, but with different microbiota show that the bacteria strongly influences the penetrability of the inner mucus layer and wild mice from the forest have a thicker impenetrable mucus. Together this suggests that specific bacteria stimulate the host at a distance to generate a protective inner mucus, likely by small metabolites. Wester-type diet (high fat, low fiber) within days renders the inner mucus layer more penetrable to bacteria further supporting bacterial influence on the mucus properties. A specialized Sentinel goblet cell located at the crypt opening senses when more bacteria penetrate the inner mucus layer and respond by coordinated mucus release. A more penetrable inner mucus layer trigger inflammation and bacterial translocation as in Western type diseases and is reflected in that the inner mucus layer is penetrable to bacteria in ulcerative colitis, something that likely also initiates this disease.
Building: Auditorium François Jacob
Address: Institut Pasteur, Rue du Docteur Roux, Paris, France