Programmed death of intestinal epithelial cells in neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis: a mini-review

Shuo Yang; Xin Wei; Yuting Zhong; Conglu Guo; Xinzhu Liu; Zhibin Wang; Ye Tu

doi:10.3389/fped.2023.1199878

Programmed death of intestinal epithelial cells in neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis: a mini-review

Front Pediatr. 2023 Jun 5:11:1199878. doi: 10.3389/fped.2023.1199878. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Shuo Yang^#^{1

2}, Xin Wei^#³, Yuting Zhong², Conglu Guo², Xinzhu Liu³, Zhibin Wang^{1

2}, Ye Tu¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacy, Shanghai East Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
² Department of Critical Care Medicine, School of Anesthesiology, Naval Medical University, Shanghai, China.
³ Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is one of the most fatal diseases in premature infants. Damage to the intestinal epithelial barrier (IEB) is an important event in the development of intestinal inflammation and the evolution of NEC. The intestinal epithelial monolayer formed by the tight arrangement of intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) constitutes the functional IEB between the organism and the extra-intestinal environment. Programmed death and regenerative repair of IECs are important physiological processes to maintain the integrity of IEB function in response to microbial invasion. However, excessive programmed death of IECs leads to increased intestinal permeability and IEB dysfunction. Therefore, one of the most fundamental questions in the field of NEC research is to reveal the pathological death process of IECs, which is essential to clarify the pathogenesis of NEC. This review focuses on the currently known death modes of IECs in NEC mainly including apoptosis, necroptosis, pyroptosis, ferroptosis, and abnormal autophagy. Furthermore, we elaborate on the prospect of targeting IECs death as a treatment for NEC based on exciting animal and clinical studies.

Keywords: intestinal epithelial barrier; intestinal epithelial cells; necrotizing enterocolitis; programmed cell death; treatment strategies.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82104269, 81872880), the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (21140905300), and Shanghai “Rising Stars of Medical Talents” Youth Development Program-Youth Medical Talents: Clinical Pharmacist Program (SHWSRS (2021) _099).