The function of morphogen Indian Hedgehog in the colon

The morphogen Indian Hedgehog plays a very important role during intestinal embryogenesis, but also maintains homeostasis of the adult gut. Intestinal Indian Hedgehog is expressed by the intestinal epithelium and signals in paracrine manner to fibroblasts in the stromal compartment. Unresolved deletion of Ihh from the intestinal epithelium leads to a severe enterocolitis. We studied the short term changes in the colon upon deletion of Ihh from the epithelial layer. By using VillinCreERT2-IHH fl/fl mice we specifically deleted Indian Hedgehog from the intestinal epithelium (Villin is expressed by the intestinal epithelial layer). 7 days after the start of induction with tamoxifen colons were isolated.