Summary The gastrointestinal tract is covered by mucus that has different properties in the stomach, small intestine and colon. The large highly glycosylated gel-forming mucins MUC2 and MUC5AC are the major components of the mucus in the intestine and stomach, respectively. In the small intestine mucus limits the number of bacteria that can reach the epithelium and the Peyer’s patches. In the large intestine the inner mucus layer separates the commensal bacteria from the host epithelium. The outer colonic mucus layer is the natural habitat for the commensal bacteria. The intestinal goblet cells not only secrete the MUC2 mucin, but also a number of typical mucus components: CLCA1, FCGBP, AGR2, ZG16, and TFF3. The goblet cells have recently been shown to have a novel gate-keeping role for the presentation of oral antigens to the immune system. Goblet cells deliver small intestinal luminal material to the lamina propria dendritic cells of the tolerogenic CD103+-type. In addition to the gel forming mucins, the transmembrane mucins MUC3, MUC12 and MUC17 form the enterocyte glycocalyx that can reach about a micrometer out from the brush border. The MUC17 mucin can shuttle from a surface to an intracellular vesicle localization suggesting that enterocytes might control and report epithelial microbial challenge. There is not only communication from the epithelial cells to the immune system, but also in the opposite direction. One example of this is IL10 that can affect and improve the properties of the inner colonic mucus layer. The mucus and epithelial cells of the gastrointestinal tract are the primary gate keepers and controllers of bacterial interactions with the host immune system, but our understanding of this relationship is still in its infancy.

SUMMARY The intestinal mucus layer provides a barrier limiting bacterial contact with the underlying epithelium. Mucus structure is shaped by intestinal location and the microbiota. To understand how commensals modulate gut mucus, we examined mucus properties under germ-free (GF) conditions and during microbial colonization. Although the colon mucus structure of GF mice was similar to conventionally raised (Convr) mice, the GF inner mucus layer was penetrable to bacteria-sized beads. During colonization, in which GF mice were gavaged with Convr microbiota, the small intestine mucus required five weeks to be normally detached and colonic inner mucus six weeks to become impenetrable. The composition of the small intestinal microbiota during colonization was similar to Convr donors until three weeks when Bacteroides increased, Firmicutes decreased, and segmented filamentous bacteria became undetectable. These findings highlight the dynamics of mucus layer development and indicate that studies of mature microbe-mucus interactions should be conducted weeks after colonization.

The intestinal mucus layer, an important element of epithelial protection, is produced by goblet cells. Intestinal goblet cells are assumed to be a homogeneous cell type. In this study, however, we delineated their specific gene and protein expression profiles and identified several distinct goblet cell populations that form two differentiation trajectories. One distinct subtype, the intercrypt goblet cells (icGCs), located at the colonic luminal surface, produced mucus with properties that differed from the mucus secreted by crypt-residing goblet cells. Mice with defective icGCs had increased sensitivity to chemically induced colitis and manifested spontaneous colitis with age. Furthermore, alterations in mucus and reduced numbers of icGCs were observed in patients with both active and remissive ulcerative colitis, which highlights the importance of icGCs in maintaining functional protection of the epithelium.

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The inner mucus layer (IML) is a critical barrier that protects the colonic epithelium from luminal threats and inflammatory bowel disease. Innate immune signaling is thought to regulate IML formation via goblet cell Nlrp6 inflammasome activity that controls secretion of the mucus structural component Muc2. We report that isolated colonic goblet cells express components of several inflammasomes; however, analysis of IML properties in multiple inflammasome-deficient mice, including littermate-controlled Nlrp6−/−, detect a functional IML barrier in all strains. Analysis of mice lacking inflammasome substrate cytokines identifies a defective IML in Il18−/− mice, but this phenotype is ultimately traced to a microbiota-driven, Il18-independent effect. Analysis of phenotypic transfer between IML-deficient and IML-intact mice finds that the Bacteroidales family S24-7 (Muribaculaceae) and genus Adlercrutzia consistently positively covary with IML barrier function. Together, our results demonstrate that baseline IML formation and function is independent of inflammasome activity and highlights the role of the microbiota in determining IML barrier function.