#intestine

by Andres Rios

Signs of Renewal

The gut lining is the most rapidly renewing tissue in the body. Distributed within the lining of epithelium are specialist Paneth cells which signal to intestinal stem cells leading to tissue renewal. Here, researchers deduce that stem cells optimise their receptiveness to the signals within this intestinal niche by orientating their Golgi apparatus [the cell's protein-processing organelles] laterally towards Paneth cells and organising their configuration – an ability which is compromised with ageing.

Read the published research article here

Video from work by Ilya Belevich and colleagues

Institute of Biotechnology, Helsinki Institute of Life Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Department of Cell and Molecular Biology (CMB), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Nature Communications, July 2026

by Tony Cheng

The great seas bear many gifts, yet are home to many dangers. The tales carved upon ivory speak of the treachery of the waters and of the beasts that lurk within it. It is no wonder that the ships of wood and bone set sail with so many blades and harpoons, as they either expect to encounter these monsters or instead are seeking them. Some of the greatest blessings that can be found in these waters are pulled from the bodies and guts of these immense beasts, making for fine materials or fetching high prices back on land. Life upon the sea is dangerous, but many do find a living out there. For them, it is crucial to know the great leviathans that dwell in the depths, and know how to deter them or best them when they rise to the surface. This determines if their ship will return to port intact, or will join the horrid beasts below in the dark depths. 

Of the creatures of the ocean, there is no doubt that the Bowel Serpent is the most foul of them. A great worm that writhes through the depths, swallowing prey in a gaping toothless maw. Belching from their mouths are clouds of filth and rot, filling the waters with the taste and smell of death. Scavengers and hungry predators arrive to feed on this chum, only to be sucked into the waiting maw. Though their length is impressive and their reek terrible, Bowel Serpents are not apexes of these waters. Other leviathans see their boneless flesh as a fine meal, and seek to sink their teeth in. To ward off attackers, these serpents discharge large clouds of waste and putrid slime, blinding foes and choking their gills. This smokescreen gives time for the worm to slink away, or perhaps fight back with powerful crushing coils. At times, they flee to the surface, where their presence is known far and wide by the horrid odor they release. Spouts of noxious gas belch from their blowholes, driving away some animals while drawing in others who mistake it for a rotten carcass. For whaling ships, this wretched reek is the sign of a hunt, and they aim their ships straight for the source. Ivory harpoons and bony hooks are launched towards its soft flesh, hooking in and preventing escape. A long fight will go down, with the hopes that the many wounds will bring this leviathan down eventually. Yellowflame is kept away from these battles, in fear that it will ignite internal gases and cause the whole worm to explode, taking the entire crew with it. 

From these battles, a valuable haul of ambergris, oil, blubber and hide is won. Many parts of this rotting worm make for excellent fuel, a fine replacement of Yellow Bile when on long journeys at sea. Their skin is good for clothing and equipment, either repelling liquid or keeping it in where they want it. The meat, while plentiful, is one that will make any sailor or fisher groan. Its horrible smell and pungent taste is made only worse by the fact that it is very much edible. While most would prefer to use it as chum, it is an undesired product that few on land would purchase, thus ship captains use it as cheap food to feed the crew. Why waste the good meat that could be sold, when there are stores of useless flesh that could fill the crew's bellies? Needless to say, "worm stew" or "gut steaks" are despised by sea folk as a whole, but when the other option is starving, these meals are choked down with grumbles and swigs of potent ales. 

While Bowel Serpents are infamous for their terrible stench, land folk like to joke that these beasts are used for perfume aboard whaling ships. As they say, Bowel Serpent odor is noxious and overpowering, but it sure beats the smell that comes off the crew when they are at sea for months on end.           

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"Bowel Serpent"

Regeneration Restored

As a person ages, their body gradually slows down – their walking, their reactions, even the regeneration of their cells. Inside the gut, it’s no different. The intestinal epithelium (the gut lining) of a young adult can entirely replace itself in less than a week. In elderly people however, many epithelial cells show signs of senescence – a dormant state in which the cells can no longer replicate to repair damage. This can lead to various gut complications. The image shows gut epithelium from an elderly person enriched with a senescence factor (a protein called uPAR; (cyan). Encouragingly, using an immunotherapy approach (called CAR-T) in which T cells were engineered to recognise and eliminate the gut cells that produce this senescence factor, scientists have been able to improve the ability of old mice to recover from gastrointestinal insults. Better still, just one round of the therapy provided long-term improvement to the animal’s gut health.

Written by Ruth Williams

Image from work by Onur Eskiocak, Joseph Gewolb, Vyom Shah, James A. Rouse, Saria Chowdhury et al. Amor Vegas & Beyaz labs at CSHL

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA

Image originally published as 'Attribution required' equating to a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Research published in Nature Aging, November 2025