Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comment
. 2012 Jan 6;10(1):2-4.
doi: 10.1016/j.stem.2011.12.012.

Tales from the crypt: the expanding role of slow cycling intestinal stem cells

Diana L Carlone  1 , David T Breault
Affiliations
Comment

Tales from the crypt: the expanding role of slow cycling intestinal stem cells

Diana L Carlone et al. Cell Stem Cell. .

Abstract

Similar to other highly self-renewing tissues, the intestinal epithelium contains both slowly and rapidly cycling progenitor/stem cells, though their relationship has been largely unexplored. Two recent reports in Nature (Tian et al., 2011) and Science (Takeda et al., 2011) shed new light on their dynamic interplay.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
(a) Intestinal crypt under steady state conditions showing inter-conversion of slowly and rapidly cycling stem cells (bidirectional arrow) as well as the dominant contribution of rapidly cycling stem cells (bold red arrow) and minor contribution of slowly cycling stem cells in the +4 position (thin blue arrow). (b) Upon injury, rapidly cycling stem cells undergo apoptosis forcing slowly cycling stem cells to assume a dominant role (blue arrow). (c) During recovery from injury, slowly cycling stem cells give rise to the rapidly cycling population restoring homeostasis. Paneth cells, marked by dense granules, define the niche boundaries.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment on

References

    1. Barker N, van Es JH, Kuipers J, Kujala P, van den Born M, Cozijnsen M, Haegebarth A, Korving J, Begthel H, Peters PJ, et al. Identification of stem cells in small intestine and colon by marker gene Lgr5. Nature. 2007;449:1003–1007. - PubMed
    1. Bjerknes M, Cheng H. Clonal analysis of mouse intestinal epithelial progenitors. Gastroenterology. 1999;116:7–14. - PubMed
    1. Cheng H, Leblond CP. Origin, differentiation and renewal of the four main epithelial cell types in the mouse small intestine. V. Unitarian Theory of the origin of the four epithelial cell types. Am J Anat. 1974;141:537–561. - PubMed
    1. Montgomery RK, Breault DT. Small intestinal stem cell markers. J Anat. 2008;213:52–58. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Montgomery RK, Carlone DL, Richmond CA, Farilla L, Kranendonk ME, Henderson DE, Baffour-Awuah NY, Ambruzs DM, Fogli LK, Algra S, et al. Mouse telomerase reverse transcriptase (mTert) expression marks slowly cycling intestinal stem cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011;108:179–184. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources