肠神经胶质细胞与炎症性肠病

肠神经胶质细胞（EGC）是给予肠神经元支持和营养成分的细胞，具有维持肠神经系统（ENS）和上皮黏膜的完整性以及调节神经活动的功能。EGC可能在肠道炎症反应及免疫应答中起积极作用，EGC通过细胞因子和细胞受体的表达充当抗原提呈细胞的角色并与黏膜免疫相互作用。了解EGC与炎症性肠病（IBD）的关系有助于阐述IBD的病理生理基础，并对新的药理学干预的研制有重要作用。

Enteric glial cells and inflammatory bowel disease

The enteric glial cell（EGC） network has trophic and protective functions toward enteric neurons and is fully implicated in the integration and modulation of neuronal activities. EGC seem to be active elements during intestinal inflammatory and immune responses and have the ability to act as antigen-presenting cells and interact with the mucosal immune system via the expression of cytokines and cytokine receptors. Accordingly, studying the relations of EGC and inflammatory bowel disease（IBD） may help to elucidate the pathophysiology of IBD and be helpful to the development of new pharmacological interventions of IBD.