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Regenerative biology

Innate immunity repairs gut lining

Nature volume 528, pages 488–489 (2015)Cite this article

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It emerges that innate immune cells called group 3 innate lymphoid cells signal directly to intestinal stem cells to promote the replacement of damaged epithelial cells lining the gut. See Letter p.560

The epithelial-cell layer that lines the intestine acts as a protective barrier against a plethora of microbes and toxic nutrients. As such, it often needs to be rapidly repaired — a process that is initiated by intestinal stem cells (ISCs), which reside in specialized niches at the bottom of small pits called crypts in the intestinal wall1. In steady-state conditions, to compensate for the normal continual loss of epithelial cells, ISCs divide once every 24 hours1 to generate progeny that differentiate into all the epithelial-cell types found in the intestine. In response to damage, changes in the behaviour of ISCs are typically thought to be directed by mediator signals released from surrounding epithelial cells in the stem-cell niche, but on page 560 of this issue, Lindemans et al.2 reveal that the true picture is much broader.

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Figure 1: Damage response.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Konrad Gronke and Andreas Diefenbach are at the Research Centre for Immunology, University of Mainz Medical Centre, and at the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, 55131 Mainz, Germany.,

    Konrad Gronke & Andreas Diefenbach

  2. K.G. is also at the Max-Planck-Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics, Freiburg, Germany.,

    Konrad Gronke

Authors
  1. Konrad Gronke
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  2. Andreas Diefenbach
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Correspondence to Andreas Diefenbach.

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Stem Cells: A unifying theory for the crypt

Stem cells: Differentiated cells in a back-up role

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Gronke, K., Diefenbach, A. Innate immunity repairs gut lining. Nature 528, 488–489 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature16325

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