上皮细胞生物学——生物医学多学科交叉的切入点

EPITHELIAL CELL BIOLOGY——An Interface for Multidisciplinary Research in Biomedical Sciences

上皮细胞在机体内分布广泛,介导着包括呼吸、消化、生殖、听觉和免疫防御在内的一系列重要生理功能。上皮细胞功能紊乱将会导致广泛的病例改变和疾病,例如囊性纤维化病。"上皮细胞生物学研究中心"成立10年来,致力于上皮细胞生物学相关的研究,并通过多学科交叉性的合作取得了一定的成果。本文总结了研究中心以上皮细胞作为多学科交叉的切入点的研究进展,并探讨上皮细胞生物学对机体功能与疾病研究的重要性。

Epithelial cells form a diverse group of polarized tissues and cover or line almost all body surfaces, cavities and tubes. Epithelia act as interfaces between different biological compartments and mediate a wide range of activities that are vital to various body functions, including hearing, host defense/protection, respiration, digestion and reproduction. Disturbance of epithelial cell functions may lead to a spec- trum of pathological conditions or diseases, like Cystic Fibrosis. Since the establishment of ＂Epithelial cell biology research centre＂ in 1999, we have aimed to promote epithelial-related research through interdisciplinary and multidiseiplinary collaborations. Here, we summarized our progresses and discussed the importance of epithelial cell biology in the research of body functions and diseases.