16S rRNA fluorescent in situ hybridization of human colon and terminal ileum biopsies: A mucus-adherent bacterial flora does not exist

The role of mucus as an invisible cloak to transepithelial drug delivery by nanoparticles

“…Under healthy conditions, respiratory tract mucus protects the epithelial lining by entrapping foreign debris, bacteria and viruses and clearing them from the airway by ciliary movement. While extensively investigated in the digestive tract [76,96,116,117], the microbiota in the respiratory tract has been neglected. The latter may be attributed to the hypothesis that the lungs are sterile domains, which has been disproven in current research [118].…”