Intestinal goblet cells and mucin production. Immuno-fluoresecent staining of goblet cell-derived proteins (red and green) with nuclear staining of the epithelium (blue). Image courtesy of the Artis Lab, Weill Cornell Medicine.
Authored by Dr. David Artis and members of his lab, a breakthrough paper has been published in Nature revealing that the immune system and the neuronal system work together inside the gut to respond to infection. Their breakthrough research is illuminating the interplay between these two systems and holds great promise for improved treatment of disease such as IBD (inflammatory bowel disease), asthma, and more. Their work has discovered that ILC2 cells have a receptor for a protein (NMU) that acts as a messenger for nerve cells.