The intestinal mucus layer is shaped and modulated by the microbiota. In a new study, the inner mucus layer of germ-free mice was found to be more easily penetrable to bacteria-sized beads compared with conventionally raised mice. When germ-free mice were inoculated with conventional bacteria, mucus in the small intestine detached 5 weeks after colonization, and the colonic inner mucus required 6 weeks to become impenetrable. The microbiota composition of the small intestine was similar in conventionally raised donor mice and colonized germ-free mice for 3 weeks, with shifts thereafter and normalization after 7 weeks.
References
Johansson, M. E. V. et al. Normalization of host intestinal mucus layers requires long-term microbial colonization. Cell Host Microbe 10.1016/j.chom.2015.10.007
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Microbe–mucus interactions in the intestine. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 12, 670 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrgastro.2015.195
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrgastro.2015.195
