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Stem cells

Marking stem cells

Nature Reviews Cancer volume 12, pages 318–319 (2012)Cite this article

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Lineage tracing has identified various ISC markers and thus various subpopulations of ISCs. For example, leucine-rich repeat-containing G protein-coupled receptor 5 (LGR5) marks a proliferative subpopulation of ISCs in the small intestine and colon, whereas other subpopulations are mostly quiescent and can give rise to LGR5+ cells. Moreover, BMI1+ ISCs can substitute for a lack of LGR5+ cells in the small intestine but not in the colon. This indicates that another ISC population may exist in the colon. Powell and colleagues sought to identify this ISC population, and gene expression profiling of mouse colonic epithelial progenitor cells identified leucine-rich repeats and immunoglobulin-like domains protein 1 (LRIG1) as a candidate marker. LRIG1 expression is usually associated with quiescent, multipotent epidermal stem cells and may be important for the homeostasis of self-renewing tissues by suppressing growth through its function as an inhibitor of ERBB signalling. Lineage tracing in LRIG1 reporter mice was used to confirm that LRIG1 is an ISC marker.

LRIG1 is a tumour suppressor, the disruption of which impairs negative regulation of the ERBB family

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Powell, A. E. et al. The pan-ErbB negative regulator Lrig1 is an intestinal stem cell marker that functions as a tumor suppressor. Cell 149, 146–158 (2012)Article

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  1. Gemma K. Alderton
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Alderton, G. Marking stem cells. Nat Rev Cancer 12, 318–319 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc3268

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