The cells that line the intestine, known as the intestinal epithelium, can become injured in disease states such as ulcerative colitis.
To repair the injury, epithelial cells must migrate to the wound; however, the signals that drive this migration are unknown. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Asma Nusrat and Andrew Neish at Emory University identified signaling pathways that mediate the repair of the intestinal epithelium.