CFTR and cystic fibrosis: In light of the evidence that signs of intestinal inflammation may be present in the sterile bowel of CF foetuses combined with in vitro data showing that the lack of CFTR was intrinsically associated with exaggerated inflammation in cells such as macrophages and dendritic cells [6, 23, 24], we postulated that genetic depletion of CFTR will affect the inflammatory status of intestinal epithelial cells.