Life and death at the mucosal-luminal interface: New perspectives on human intestinal ischemia-reperfusion

Figure 3 Prolonged small intestinal ischemia-reperfusion results in physical and immunological barrier function loss and inflammation. A: Prolonged IR leads to disruption of the epithelial lining (physical barrier integrity loss) and Paneth cell loss (immunological barrier integrity loss); B: Inflammatory responses are characterized by increased endothelial expression of ICAM-1 (left panel) with sequestration of MPO-positive neutrophils into the villus tips (right panel), and increased expression and release of inflammatory cytokines including IL-6, IL-8 and TNF; C: Left panel: Prolonged IR leads to Paneth cell apoptosis, as shown by the co-localization of M30 (brown: apoptosis) and human defensin 5 (blue: Paneth cells). Right panel: EM picture of apoptotic Paneth cell, shed into the crypt lumen. ICAM-1: Intercellular adhesion molecule-1; MPO: Myeloperoxidase; HD5: Human defensin-5.