MUC5AC and infection: Colonic tissue explants were previously used to identify a novel goblet cell subset, termed “sentinel goblet cells”, that respond to the presence of nearby bacterial products by rapidly secreting mucins, as well as inducing mucin release by nearby canonical goblet cells, through the activation of caspase-1 and −11 via the Nlrp6 inflammasome.19,27 Considering the exaggerated susceptibility of Nlrp6−/− mice to enteric S. Typhimurium infection, we initially suspected this pathway would be a major contributor to the mucin release seen in our infection model.