Team TARGET

Our current mission is to determine the role of ClC-2 in intestinal epithelial barrier function and cellular differentiation.

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The ClC-2 chloride channel is a voltage-gated chloride channel involved in physiological processes such as fluid transport, secretion, regulation of cell volume and pH, maintaining membrane potential of the cell, cell to cell communication, and tissue homeostasis (Jin & Blikslager, 2015). There is evidence indicating that ClC-2 plays a critical role in the regulation of intestinal barrier function by altering the composition of inter-epithelial apical junction complex composition. 

 

We will be doing this through in vitro intestinal bowel disease (IBD) models. Currently, we are looking into establishing and characterizing primary cultured porcine intestinal cells grown as a 2-dimensional monolayer using enteroid culture media. This would serve as a good model of the intestinal epithelium due to its clinical relevancy and heterogeneity.