Three cheers for the goblet cell: maintaining homeostasis in mucosal epithelia

Heather A Mccauley (1) , Géraldine A Guasch (2, 1)

1 Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
2 CRCM - Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie de Marseille

Many organs throughout the body maintain epithelial homeostasis by employing a mucosal barrier which acts as a lubricant and helps to preserve a near-sterile epithelium. Goblet cells are largely responsible for secreting components of this mucosal barrier and represent a major cellular component of the innate defense system. In this review, we summarize what is known about the signaling pathways that control goblet cell differentiation in the intestine, the lung and the ocular surface and discuss a novel functional role for goblet cells in mucosal epithelial immunology. We highlight the cell type specificity of the circuitry regulating goblet cell differentiation and shed light on how alteration of these pathways affects goblet function, which represent prominent features of mucosal-associated diseases.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Heather A Mccauley, Géraldine A Guasch. Three cheers for the goblet cell: maintaining homeostasis in mucosal epithelia. Trends in Molecular Medicine, 2015, 21, pp.492 - 503. ⟨10.1016/j.molmed.2015.06.003⟩. ⟨hal-01427451⟩