Stem cells and inflammation in the intestine.

Abstract

Knowledge of stem cell biology in the intestine is increasing exponentially and it is one of the current hot topics 'of the day'. Yet it is only recently that molecules such as Lgr5 and Bmi1 have been shown to reliably mark stem cells and have revealed the stem cell location throughout the murine gastrointestinal tract. However, there is a scarcity of meaningful work within their human counterpart. Nevertheless, recent studies have demonstrated the processes of niche succession, where one stem cell takes over the entire population of stem cells within a crypt; and monoclonal conversion, whereby the entire crypt becomes a clonal population of cells, are present in the human crypt. This work has also shown how crypts themselves divide and expand in the human colon.