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. 2019 Mar 29;10:607. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2019.00607

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Copyright © 2019 Cheng, Ning, Chen and Ma.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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Gut microbiota plays an important role in the induction of antimicrobial peptides expression against pathogens. Antimicrobial peptides are key components of innate immunity to control pathogen growth within the intestine. Accumulated evidence identified that gut microbiota can contribute to the expression of antimicrobial peptides and play a central role in host defense against pathogens. Paneth cells could directly sense gut microbiota through cell-autonomous myeloid differentiation primary response 88 (MyD88)-dependent toll-like receptor (TLR) activation, triggering expression of α-defensins and C-type lectins. With regard to β-defensin, gut microbiota induce β-defensin expression in cell culture mediated by NF-κB- and MAPK/AP-1-dependent pathways in vitro. Then β-defensin interacts with intestinal epithelial cell (IEC) through CCR6 to activate epithelial restitution and barrier repair.