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. 2001 Aug;49(2):159–162. doi: 10.1136/gut.49.2.159

Intestinal zonulin: open sesame!

A FASANO 1
PMCID: PMC1728387  PMID: 11454785

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Proposed zonulin/zonula occludens toxin (Zot) intracellular signalling leading to the opening of intestinal tight junctions. Zonulin and Zot interact with the same specific surface receptor (1) whose distribution within the intestine varies. The proteins are then internalised and activate phospholipase C (2) that hydrolyses phosphatidyl inositol (3) to release inositol 1,4,5-tris phosphate (PPI-3) and diacylglycerol (DAG) (4). Protein kinase C (PKC)α is then activated (5), either directly (via DAG) (4) or through release of intracellular Ca++ (via PPI- 3) (4a). PKCα catalyses the phosphorylation of target protein(s) with subsequent polymerisation of soluble G-actin to F-actin (7). This polymerisation causes the rearrangement of the filaments of actin and the subsequent displacement of proteins (including ZO-1) from the junctional complex (8). As a result, intestinal tight junctions become looser (from Fasano32 with permission, modified).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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