Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 21, 2019; 25(27): 3503-3526
Published online Jul 21, 2019. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v25.i27.3503
Eosinophils in the gastrointestinal tract and their role in the pathogenesis of major colorectal disorders
Alexandre Loktionov
Alexandre Loktionov, DiagNodus Ltd, Babraham Research Campus, Cambridge CB22 3AT, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Loktionov A is responsible for all work related to the preparation of this review. He has designed paper structure, performed literature search, contributed figures, analysed literature data and wrote the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest. No financial support.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Alexandre Loktionov, MD, PhD, Director, DiagNodus Ltd, Bldg 280, Babraham Research Campus, Cambridge CB22 3AT, United Kingdom. alex.loktionov@diagnodus.com
Telephone: +44-1223-497181
Received: March 6, 2019
Peer-review started: March 6, 2019
First decision: May 16, 2019
Revised: May 22, 2019
Accepted: May 31, 2019
Article in press: June 1, 2019
Published online: July 21, 2019
Processing time: 136 Days and 17.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Eosinophils are multifunctional granulocytes possessing readily releasable stores of cytotoxic proteins, regulatory cytokines and chemokines in their specific granules. In health eosinophils reside in the gut, exerting homeostatic functions including protective mucosal barrier integrity maintenance and contribution to gut-associated immunity. Eosinophils are important players in inflammatory bowel disease pathogenesis (both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis). These cells are also associated with a favourable prognosis in colorectal cancer, however mechanisms of this association remain obscure. The author presents a comprehensive analysis of the current literature on eosinophils in the gut and highlights the importance of poorly investigated immune responses occurring within colorectal mucus.