Auxilin in enteroendocrine cells controls intestinal homeostasis through inter-cell signaling relays.

Auxilin in enteroendocrine cells restricts intestinal stem cell proliferation, and aux depletion in all EEs disrupts intestinal homeostasis.

• Why it matters: Differentiated cells’ cell-cell communication control of stem cell proliferation and tissue homeostasis is poorly understood, limiting insight into how homeostasis is maintained or fails.
• What they did: The study depleted Aux in enteroendocrine cells, measured Slit and Upd3 changes, rescued defects by ectopic slit expression, and tested EGFR pathway inhibition and Pointed binding to slit regulatory regions.
• The result: Aux loss dramatically reduces Slit, increases Upd3 in some aux-depleted EEs and neighboring enterocytes, and ectopic slit or EGFR inhibition suppresses prosts>auxRNAi intestinal defects, with EGFR linked to Pointed-dependent slit transcription.