Structure and function of the intestinal epithelial barrier

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a revolutionary outbreak of our knowledge about ultra-/structure and function of the intestinal epithelial barrier. During evolution acquisited ability of the macroorganism to dynamically coordinate the interaction with the complexe colonizing microbial ecosystem has been recently shown to be crucial in the health and in the illness-prevention. As acute as chronic pathological conditions, primarilly infectious or non-infectious, may lead to disruption of the intestinal epithelial barrier. The presented overview summarises actual knowledge about structure and function of the intestinal epithelial barrier.