Many studies have demonstrated the involvement of proteases in gut physiology and pathophysiology over the recent years. Among them, thrombin has appeared for a long time as an old player only involved in blood clotting upon tissue injury. The fact that thrombin receptors (Protease-Activated Receptors-1 and -4) are expressed and functional in almost all cell types of the gut, contributing to barrier, immune or motility functions, suggested that thrombin could actually be at the crossroad of intestinal physiology. Recent work has unraveled the constitutive release of active thrombin by intestinal epithelial cells, opening new research avenues on the role of thrombin in the gut. These roles are considered in the present review, as well as the regulation of thrombin in the gut. The potential of thrombin as a target for treatments of intestinal pathologies is also discussed here.

中文翻译：

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肠道中凝血酶的故事

近年来，许多研究表明蛋白酶参与肠道生理学和病理生理学。其中，凝血酶作为老玩家已经出现很长时间了，只参与组织损伤时的血液凝固。凝血酶受体（蛋白酶激活受体-1和-4）在几乎所有肠道细胞类型中表达并发挥作用，有助于屏障、免疫或运动功能，这一事实表明凝血酶实际上可能处于肠道生理学的十字路口。最近的工作揭示了肠上皮细胞活性凝血酶的组成性释放，为凝血酶在肠道中的作用开辟了新的研究途径。本综述考虑了这些作用以及肠道中凝血酶的调节。本文还讨论了凝血酶作为肠道病理治疗靶点的潜力。