Abstract
Organ homeostasis is essential for organ physiology and disease prevention. In adult vertebrates, the intestinal epithelium is maintained through constant cell proliferation in the crypt and apoptosis of differentiated epithelial cells, mainly at the tip of the villus. Based on studies with altered cell proliferation and tissue damage in the adult mouse intestine, we hypothesize that there is a communication between cell proliferation in the crypt and cell death on the villus, likely via cell–cell and cell-ECM (extracellular matrix) interactions, to coordinate the rate of cell proliferation and death, thus ensuring epithelial homeostasis.
Highlights
Organ homeostasis is essential for organ physiology and disease prevention
*Correspondence: Shi@helix.nih.gov 2 Section on Molecular Morphogenesis, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article migrate along the epithelial fold or villus/crypt axis, they differentiate into different types of epithelial cells and eventually dies via apoptosis near the top of the fold or tip of the villus (Fig. 1), completing the selfrenewing cycle and maintaining tissue homeostasis
We propose a simple model based on the tight cell–cell contacts between adjacent epithelial cells and changes in cell-ECM interactions as the cells migrate along the villus-crypt axis (Fig. 1)
Summary
Organ homeostasis is essential for organ physiology and disease prevention. In adult vertebrates, the intestinal epi‐ thelium is maintained through constant cell proliferation in the crypt and apoptosis of differentiated epithelial cells, mainly at the tip of the villus. *Correspondence: Shi@helix.nih.gov 2 Section on Molecular Morphogenesis, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article migrate along the epithelial fold or villus/crypt axis, they differentiate into different types of epithelial cells and eventually dies via apoptosis near the top of the fold or tip of the villus (Fig. 1), completing the selfrenewing cycle and maintaining tissue homeostasis.
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