Assertion: tract's function | /r/HasProperty | housing
Facets:
Source sentences:
text: Suspected functions include housing and cultivating beneficial gut flora that can repopulate the digestive system following an illness that wipes out normal populations of these flora; providing a site for the production of endocrine cells in the fetus that produce molecules important in regulating homeostasis; and serving a possible role in immune function during the first three decades of life by exposing leukocytes (white blood cells) to antigens in the gastrointestinal tract, thereby stimulating antibody production that may help modulate immune reactions in the gut.