Document Type

Article

Disciplines

Life Sciences | Medicine and Health Sciences

Abstract

Stem cells of the gastrointestinal tract, pancreas, liver, and other columnar epithelia collectively resist cloning in their elemental states. Here we demonstrate the cloning and propagation of highly clonogenic, “ground state” stem cells of the human intestine and colon. We show that derived stem cell pedigrees sustain limited copy number and sequence variation despite extensive serial passaging and display exquisitely precise, cell-autonomous commitment to epithelial differentiation consistent with their origins along the intestinal tract. This developmentally patterned and epigenetically maintained commitment of stem cells likely enforces the functional specificity of the adult intestinal tract. Using clonally-derived colonic epithelia, we show that toxins A or B of the enteric pathogen C. difficile recapitulate the salient features of pseudomembranous colitis. The stability of the epigenetic commitment programs of these stem cells, coupled with their unlimited replicative expansion and maintained clonogenicity, suggests certain advantages for their use in disease modeling and regenerative medicine.

Comments

Nature. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2016 May 3. Published in final edited form as: Nature. 2015 Jun 11; 522(7555): 173–178. Published online 2015 Jun 3. doi: 10.1038/nature14484 PMCID: PMC4853906 NIHMSID: NIHMS768270

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