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The intestinal epithelial response to damage

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Abstract

The constant renewal of the intestinal epithelium is fueled by intestinal stem cells (ISCs) lying at the base of crypts, and these ISCs continuously give rise to transit-amplifying progenitor cells during homeostasis. Upon injury and loss of ISCs, the epithelium has the ability to regenerate by the dedifferentiation of progenitor cells that then regain stemness and repopulate the pool of ISCs. Epithelial cells receive cues from immune cells, mesenchymal cells and the microbiome to maintain homeostasis. This review focuses on the response of the epithelium to damage and the interplay between the different intestinal compartments.

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Acknowledgements

We thank David Castillo Azofeifa, Tomas Wald, Kara McKinley, Rachel Zwick and Adriane Joo for reviewing and editing the manuscript and help with figure designs. This work was supported by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (RN3-06525), Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique-FNRS, Wallonie-Brussels International (WBI) and Fonds Erasme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Program in Craniofacial Biology and Department of Orofacial Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA

    Laura Weichselbaum & Ophir D. Klein

  2. Institute for Medical Immunology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Gosselies, 6041, Belgium

    Laura Weichselbaum

  3. Laboratory of Experimental Gastroenterology, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, 1070, Belgium

    Laura Weichselbaum

  4. Department of Pediatrics and Institute for Human Genetics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA

    Ophir D. Klein

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Weichselbaum, L., Klein, O.D. The intestinal epithelial response to damage. Sci. China Life Sci. 61, 1205–1211 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-018-9331-y

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