Access

News and Views

Nature Cell Biology 9, 880–881 (1 August 2007) | doi:10.1038/ncb0807-880

It takes guts to make a single lumen

Heinz-Georg Belting & Markus Affolter

Most internal organs contain tubes; some tubular organs such as the lung or the vascular system contain highly branched networks, whereas others such as the neural tube or the intestine consist of a single tube. These two types of tube fulfil different physiological purposes: whereas the vascular system, for example, ensures quick delivery of gas and nutrients to remote realms of the body, such constraints do not apply to the intestine.