ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2010
The bacterial signal indole increases epithelial-cell tight-junction resistance and attenuates indicators of inflammation.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 486 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
486 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 842 citations in OpenAlex.
- Gut microbiota bridges dietary nutrients and host immunity.Science China. Life sciences · 2023Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Trial
- Efficacy of a postbiotic and its components in promoting colonic transit and alleviating chronic constipation in humans and mice.Cell reports. Medicine · 2025Trial
- Gut microbiota shaping fatty liver disease progression.Life science alliance · 2027Review
- Intestinal gases as markers to study the diet-gut microbiota-host metabolism axis in humans and their relationship to metabolic health.Gut microbes · 2026Review
- Towards optimizing the host response to biotics: a report of an International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics working group.Gut microbes · 2026Article
- Bridging the gap:Gut microbes · 2026Review
- The gut-bone axis: microbial metabolism and nutritional interventions for bone health.Gut microbes · 2026Review
- Dietary tryptophan mitigates lung ischemia-reperfusion injury in association with increased indole-3-propionate and aryl hydrocarbon receptor signaling.Gut microbes · 2026Article
- Microbiome-driven alterations in tryptophan metabolism contribute to behavioral comorbidities in the Muc2 knockout mouse model of chronic colitis.Gut microbes · 2026Article
- Indole decreases the virulence of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli.World journal of microbiology & biotechnology · 2026Article
- Article
- The Importance of the Gut-Muscle Axis: From Mechanistic Insights in Cell Culture and Rodent Models to Descriptive and Associative Evidence in Livestock.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Review
- Review
- The Role of the Gut Microbiota in Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation.American journal of hematology · 2026Review
- Obesity-driven microbial GABA depletion promotes metabolic rewiring and colorectal cancer progression.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Integrating host-microbiota metabolic networks: how aromatic amino acids shape immune homeostasis and affect disease progression.Cellular & molecular immunology · 2026Review
- The Effects of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on Tryptophan Metabolism and Depressive-Like Behavior in Mice.Brain and behavior · 2026Article
- Review
426 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Interkingdom signaling is established in the gastrointestinal tract in that human hormones trigger responses in bacteria; here, we show that the corollary is true, that a specific bacterial signal, indole, is recognized as a beneficial signal in intestinal epithelial cells. Our prior work has shown that indole, secreted by commensal Escherichia coli and detected in human feces, reduces pathogenic E. coli chemotaxis, motility, and attachment to epithelial cells. However, the effect of indole on intestinal epithelial cells is not known. Because intestinal epithelial cells are likely to be exposed continuously to indole, we hypothesized that indole may be beneficial for these cells, and investigated changes in gene expression with the human enterocyte cell line HCT-8 upon exposure to indole. Exposure to physiologically relevant amounts of indole increased expression of genes involved in strengthening the mucosal barrier and mucin production, which were consistent with an increase in the transepithelial resistance of HCT-8 cells. Indole also decreased TNF-alpha-mediated activation of NF-kappaB, expression of the proinflammatory chemokine IL-8, and the attachment of pathogenic E. coli to HCT-8 cells, as well as increased expression of the antiinflammatory cytokine IL-10. The changes in transepithelial resistance and NF-kappaB activation were specific to indole: other indole-like molecules did not elicit a similar response. Our results are similar to those observed with probiotic strains and suggest that indole could be important in the intestinal epithelial cells response to gastrointestinal tract pathogens.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.