Cholinergic neurons trigger epithelial Ca2+ currents to heal the gut
A fundamental and unresolved question in regenerative biology is how tissues return to homeostasis after injury. Answering this question is essential for understanding the etiology of chronic disorders such as inflammatory bowel diseases and cancer1. We used the Drosophila midgut2 to investigate this and discovered that during regeneration a subpopulation of cholinergic3 neurons triggers Ca2+ currents among intestinal epithelial cells, the enterocytes, to promote return to homeostasis. We found that down-regulation of the conserved cholinergic enzyme Acetylcholinesterase4 in the gut epithelium...
Source: nature.com