Epithelia surround our bodies and line most of our organs. Intrinsic homeostatic mechanisms replenish and repair these tissues in the face of wear and tear, wounds, and even the presence of accumulating mutations. Recent advances in cell biology, genetics, and live-imaging techniques have revealed that epithelial homeostasis represents an intrinsically flexible process at the level of individual epithelial cells. This homeostatic flexibility has important implications for how we think about the more dramatic cell plasticity that is frequently thought to be associated with pathological settings. In this review, we will focus on key emerging mechanisms and processes of epithelial homeostasis and elaborate on the known molecular mechanisms of epithelial cell interactions to illuminate how epithelia are maintained throughout an organism’s lifetime.

上皮细胞围绕着我们的身体，围绕着我们的大部分器官。内在的体内平衡机制可以在磨损，伤口，甚至累积突变的情况下补充并修复这些组织。细胞生物学，遗传学和实时成像技术的最新进展表明，上皮稳态代表了单个上皮细胞水平上固有的柔性过程。这种稳态的灵活性对于我们如何思考通常被认为与病理环境有关的更为显着的细胞可塑性具有重要意义。在这篇综述中，我们将重点关注上皮稳态的关键新兴机制和过程，并详细阐述上皮细胞相互作用的已知分子机制，以阐明生物体整个生命周期中如何维持上皮细胞。