More than a decade has passed since the conceptualization of the “alarmin” hypothesis. The
alarmin family has been expanding in terms of both number and the concept. It has recently …

With the rapid rise in the emergence of bacterial strains resistant to multiple classes of
antimicrobial agents, there is an urgent need to develop novel antimicrobial therapies to …

This article provides an overview of how intestinal epithelial cells (IEC) recognize
commensals and how they maintain host-bacterial symbiosis. Endocrine, goblet cells, and …

Members of the cationic host defense (antimicrobial) peptide family are widely distributed in
nature, existing in organisms from insects to plants to mammals and non-mammalian …

β-Defensins are small antimicrobial peptides of the innate immune system produced in
response to microbial infection of mucosal tissue and skin. We demonstrate that murine β …

Mammals generate a diverse array of antimicrobial proteins, largely represented by
defensins or cathelicidins. The direct in vitro microbicidal activity of antimicrobial proteins …

A number of antimicrobial peptides such as defensins have multiple functions in host
defence. Defensins are produced not only by phagocytic cells and lymphocytes, but also by …

Ion channels on the mitochondrial inner membrane influence cell function in specific ways
that can be detrimental or beneficial to cell survival. At least one type of potassium (K+) …

Peptides with broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity are found widely expressed throughout
nature. As they participate in a number of different aspects of innate immunity in mammals …

Enterocytes used to be studied particularly in terms of digestion protagonists. However, as
the immune functions of the intestinal tract were better understood, it became clear that …