Localization and expression of two human b-defensins (HBD-1 and HBD-2) in intestinal biopsies of celiac patients

Innate immunity is the first line of defense against microorganisms in vertebrates and acts by providing an initial barrier to microorganisms and triggering adaptive immune responses (Ganz and Lehrer 1999; Oppenheim et al., 2002). Peptides such as b-defensins are an important component of this defense, both providing a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity against bacteria, fungi, mycobacteria and several enveloped viruses (Ganz and Leher, 1994) and showing chemotactic activity by linking and activating CCR6 (Hoover DM et al. , 2002). b-defensins are small cationic peptides that vary in their expression patterns and spectrum of pathogen specificity (Ganz and Leher, 2002).