The gut epithelium protects the host from a potentially hostile environment while allowing nutrient uptake that is vital for the organism. To maintain this delicate task, the gut epithelium has evolved multilayered cellular functions ranging from mucus production to hormone release and orchestration of mucosal immunity. Here, we review the execution of intestinal epithelial metabolism in health and illustrate how perturbation of epithelial metabolism affects experimental gut inflammation and tumorigenesis. We also discuss the impact of environmental factors and host–microbe interactions on epithelial metabolism in the context of inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer. Insights into epithelial metabolism hold promise to unravel mechanisms of organismal health that may be therapeutically exploited in humans in the future.

肠道上皮保护宿主免受潜在不利环境的影响，同时允许吸收对生物体至关重要的营养物质。为了维持这项微妙的任务，肠道上皮进化出了多层细胞功能，从粘液产生到激素释放和粘膜免疫的协调。在这里，我们回顾了健康中肠上皮代谢的执行情况，并说明了上皮代谢的扰动如何影响实验性肠道炎症和肿瘤发生。我们还讨论了炎症性肠病和结直肠癌中环境因素和宿主-微生物相互作用对上皮代谢的影响。对上皮代谢的深入了解有望揭示有机体健康的机制，这些机制可能在未来用于人类的治疗。