Microbial regulation of DNA repair in intestinal epithelial cells

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The intestine contains an abundant colony of microorganisms and intestinal epithelial cells (IEC) that are critical for regulating the interaction of these microbes with the host. IEC express numerous pattern recognition receptors (PRR) that allow them to sense and respond to microbes. This is critical since microbes can produce products that damage DNA and IEC are very susceptible to accumulating mutations because they divide frequently and must reproduce their DNA each time. While numerous protective DNA repair pathways operate within IEC, the basic question of how these repair mechanisms are regulated by intestinal microbial products remains unanswered despite the fact that the existence of such regulatory pathways could have important consequences for fundamental intestinal physiology.