Gut, Heal Thyself

摘要

Foods, drugs, and pathogens all represent possible threats to our guts on a daily basis. Fortunately, the gut is quite good at repairing itself-but how? Working in mice, Miyoshi et al. (p. 108, published online 6 September; see the Perspective by Barrett) selectively injured intestinal crypts containing intestinal stem cells and observed the repair process. The noncanonical Wnt ligand, Wnt5a, was required for crypt regeneration. Wnt5a inhibited intestinal stem cell proliferation, which paradoxically promoted regeneration of crypt tissue.