ANTIMICROBIAL OLIGOPEPTIDES - AN IMPORTAN T FACTOR IN THE NONSPECIFICDEFENSE OF INFECTIONS

For survival of plants, animals as well as man in a nature full of agg ressive microbes, endogenous antibiotics play an essential role, which is not yet fully appreciated in medicine and science. For example in the granules of polymorphonuclear granulocytes and macrophages or even of specialized epithelial cells such as Paneth cells in the crypts of the intestinal mucosa, oligopeptides are produced with a wide range o f antimicrobial activity. According to their chemical structures and m odes of action they can be grouped into various different families. Th e physiological role of these agents on the surface of skin and mucosa or within host tissue is only incompletely understood.