Symbiotic Bacterial Metabolites Regulate Gastrointestinal Barrier Function via the Xenobiotic Sensor PXR and Toll-like Receptor 4

Intestinal microbial metabolites are conjectured to affect mucosal integrity through an incompletely characterized mechanism. Here we showed that microbial-specific indoles regulated intestinal barrier function through the xenobiotic sensor, pregnane X receptor (PXR). Indole 3-propionic acid (IPA), in the context of indole, is a ligand for PXR in vivo, and IPA downregulated enterocyte TNF-α while it upregulated junctional protein-coding mRNAs....