Arachidonic acid promotes intestinal regeneration by activating Wnt signaling

We identify arachidonic acid (AA), as a direct proliferation promoter of intestinal epithelial cells, facilitating small intestinal regeneration. In the transcriptomes, it shows that AA treatment upregulated proliferation-related genes including Wnt signaling target genes, while downregulated differentiation-related genes including enterocyte, goblet cell, Paneth cell, enteroendocrine cell, and tuft cell markers. Additionally, AA could also upregulate stem cell-associated genes which have been highly expressed three days after 12Gy IR injury (e.g. Clu, Lamc2, Anxa1, Areg, and Ly6d). The study shows that AA treatment can be considered a potential therapy for irradiation injury repair and tissue regeneration.