The epithelium takes the stage in asthma and inflammatory bowel diseases

Front Cell Dev Biol. 2024 Mar 11:12:1258859. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2024.1258859. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

The epithelium is a dynamic barrier and the damage to this epithelial layer governs a variety of complex mechanisms involving not only epithelial cells but all resident tissue constituents, including immune and stroma cells. Traditionally, diseases characterized by a damaged epithelium have been considered "immunological diseases," and research efforts aimed at preventing and treating these diseases have primarily focused on immuno-centric therapeutic strategies, that often fail to halt or reverse the natural progression of the disease. In this review, we intend to focus on specific mechanisms driven by the epithelium that ensure barrier function. We will bring asthma and Inflammatory Bowel Diseases into the spotlight, as we believe that these two diseases serve as pertinent examples of epithelium derived pathologies. Finally, we will argue how targeting the epithelium is emerging as a novel therapeutic strategy that holds promise for addressing these chronic diseases.

Keywords: IBD; asthma; barrier; epithelium; mucus; therapeutics.

Publication types

  • Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. RLP is funded by the DFG (Deutsches Forchungsgemeinschaft; Project numbers 461063481, 375876048 and 505539112). DCB and CP-P are funded by the Wellcome Investigator Award 221908/z/20/Zs. CP-P is the recipient of a Long-Term Fellowship (LT000654/2019-L) from the Human Frontier Science Program organization and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship (898067) from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. EO-Z is funded by the UV-LaFe 2022 Program and the Valencian Respiratory Society (2023).