Kraiczy Judith, Zilbauer Matthias
Department of Paediatrics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Wellcome Trust-Medical Research Council Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Stem Cells Int. 2019 Jan 27;2019:7242415. doi: 10.1155/2019/7242415. eCollection 2019.
The intestinal epithelium forms the inner layer of the human intestine and serves a wide range of diverse functions. Its constant exposure to a vast amount of complex microbiota highlights the critical interface that this single-cell layer forms between the host and our environment. Importantly, the well-documented contribution of environmental factors towards the functional development of the human intestinal epithelium directly implies epigenetic mechanisms in orchestrating this complex interplay. The development of intestinal epithelial organoid culture systems that can be generated from human tissue provides researchers with unpresented opportunities to study functional aspects of human intestinal epithelial pathophysiology. In this brief review, we summarise existing evidence for the role of epigenetics in regulating intestinal epithelial cell function and highlight the great potential for human gut organoids as translational research tools to investigate these mechanisms .
肠上皮形成人体肠道的内层，并发挥多种不同功能。它持续暴露于大量复杂的微生物群中，凸显了这一单细胞层在宿主与外界环境之间形成的关键界面。重要的是，环境因素对人类肠上皮功能发育的明确作用直接表明了表观遗传机制在协调这种复杂相互作用中的作用。能够从人体组织生成的肠道上皮类器官培养系统的发展，为研究人员提供了前所未有的机会来研究人类肠上皮病理生理学的功能方面。在这篇简短的综述中，我们总结了表观遗传学在调节肠上皮细胞功能方面作用的现有证据，并强调了人类肠道类器官作为研究这些机制的转化研究工具的巨大潜力。
