Life after death in the intestine

The epithelial cells that line our gut are constantly replaced and shed into the lumen. The common thought is that they immediately die upon dissociation from the tissue. Contrary to this view, we show that shed cells are viable and diverse and up-regulate antimicrobial programs upon their shedding. We also demonstrate that immune cells are continuously shed, and that immune cell shedding increases in intestinal inflammation. Transcriptomics of these cells in feces enables identifying intestinal inflammation, constituting a statistically powerful methodology to identify intestinal pathologies.