An in vitro approach to the evaluation of the cross talk between intestinal epithelium and macrophages.

The intestinal epithelium acts as a mucosal barrier by varying their signals to immune cells within the intestine. To observe the cross talk between intestinal epithelium and macrophages, we establish a Caco-2-THP-1 co-culture system. Using this co-culture system, we suggested that paracrine factors of intestinal epithelium increased the phagocytic capacity of intestinal monocytes/macrophages to be ready for immune and inflammatory responses.