Review article: healing after inflammatory injury - coordination of a regulatory peptide network

Intestinal epithelial cells are capable of producing a variety of cytokines and other regulatory factors that can affect functional regulation of the epithelium itself, through autocrine and paracrine mechanisms, as well as f unctional integration with lamina propria populations. The bi-directional n ature of this cytokine network is now apparent, with the demonstration that both rat and human intestinal epithelium-derived cell lines possess a much greater array of cytokine receptors than previously anticipated.