A Human Intestinal M-Cell-Like Model for Investigating Particle, Antigen and Microorganism Translocation

The specialized microfold cells (M cells) in the follicle-associated epithelium of intestinal Peyer’s patches serve as antigen-sampling cells of the intestinal innate immune system. Unlike ‘classical’ enterocytes, they are able to translocate diverse particulates without digesting them. This protocol describes a reproducible and versatile human M-cell-like in vitro model. This model can be exploited to evaluate M-cell transport of microparticles and nanoparticles for protein, drug or vaccine delivery and to study bacterial adherence and translocation across M cells.