title: Citrobacter Infection and Wnt signaling.
abstract: Gut flora generally contributes to a healthy environment while both commensal and pathogenic bacteria that influence the innate and adaptive immune responses, can cause acute and/or chronic mucosal inflammation.Citrobacter rodentium(C. rodentium) is a member of the family of enteropathogens that provide an excellentin vivomodel to investigate the host-pathogen interactions in real-time. It is the etiologic agent for transmissible murine colonic hyperplasia (TMCH) while inflammation followingC. rodentiuminfection is dependent upon the genetic background. Ongoing and completed studies in this model have so far established that Wnt/β-catenin, Notch and PI3K pathways regulate colonic crypt hyperplasia while epithelial-stromal cross-talk, mediated by MEK/ERK/NF-κB signaling, regulates inflammation and/or colitis in susceptible strains. TheC. rodentium-induced hyperplastic state also increases the susceptibility to either mutagenic insult or in mice heterozygous forApcgene. The ability to modulate the host response toC. rodentiuminfection therefore provides an opportunity to delineate the mechanisms that determine mucosal hyperplasia, intestinal inflammation, and/or neoplasia as disease outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS.
authors.forename: Shahid
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Umar
keywords: Citrobacter rodentium; Colon Cancer; Enteric Infection; Inflammation; Inflammatory Bowel Disease; Microbiota; Wnt Signaling