Intestinal epithelial stem cells and their regional identity along the gastrointestinal tract

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25670106
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: General physiology
• Research Institution: Tokyo Medical and Dental University
• Principal Investigator: NAKAMURA Tetsuya 東京医科歯科大学, 医歯(薬)学総合研究科, 寄附講座教授 (70265809)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 腸上皮幹細胞 / 小腸上皮 / 大腸上皮 / 細胞分化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

During development, intestinal epithelia undergo maturation and are specified into distinct phenotypes that share common features but have many unique functions. Although the small and large intestine form a continuous tube and share similar developmental origins, how their regional identity in adults are morphologically and functionally maintained remains unclear. By employing the cell transplantation technique that we developed, we have investigated how adult small intestinal epithelial stem cells (SCs) behave when transplanted onto the colon. We show that cultured murine small intestinal SCs are able to reconstitute self-renewing epithelia in the colon. When stably integrated, the small intestine-derived grafts show many features unique only to the small intestine, but distinct from the colonic epithelium. Our study provides evidence that adult intestinal SCs are able to maintain their identity along the gastrointestinal tract through an epithelium-intrinsic mechanism.

Free Research Field

消化器内科学