Infection kills gut cells, while diet reshapes existing ones, fruit fly study finds

A new Cornell study reveals that the intestines employ distinct strategies to rebuild themselves when faced with diet changes versus infections, according to researchers. Published in Communications Biology, the findings shed light on how gut health adapts to challenging conditions and the diverse ecosystems of microbes and diets.

Nicolas Buchon, the senior author and associate professor of entomology, highlights the importance of understanding the mechanisms by which stem cells respond to microbes to potentially address infections and diseases such as Crohn's and cancer. Pharmaceutical or therapeutic applications based on these discoveries are still years away, but they pave the way for future breakthroughs.

The research, conducted on fruit flies, shows that infectious damage triggers cell loss and stimulates stem cells to generate new ones, while dietary modifications cause existing cells to expand or contract. Buchon emphasizes the need to explore the interplay between nutrition and infection to better comprehend the gut's adaptive mechanisms.

The study challenges the notion of intestinal homeostasis, which previously assumed that damage leads to restoration to a fixed pre-injury size. Instead, the researchers discovered that the gut's response to infections depends on its initial nutritional state, and post-infection growth is influenced by the recovery diet rather than the restoration to the original size.