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Previous Volume 351:1685-1686 October 14, 2004 Number 16 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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Bacterial cells within the intestine (commensal microflora) vastly outnumber the epithelial cells lining this organ. Like all bacteria, they release chemical signals with conserved patterns recognized by specific receptors — called toll-like receptors (TLRs) — of the innate immune system. It is therefore assumed that the healthy intestinal surface somehow defuses the threat of commensal bacteria to the lumen, where they thus reside undetected. A recent study by Rakoff-Nahoum and colleagues¹ provides insight into how this happens: commensal bacteria interact with the intestinal surface and, to some degree, trigger TLR signaling (Figure 1). Surprisingly, this interaction is actually . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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From the Department of Pathology, University of Chicago, Chicago.

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