CXCL8 and irritable bowel syndrome: Moreover, exosomes derived from the serum of IBD patients have been found to upregulate Interleukin-8 (IL-8) in epithelial cells, triggering macrophage chemotaxis and sustaining immune cell infiltration, which further disrupts the mucosal barrier and disturbs microbial homeostasis (Shen et al., 2021).