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Stem Cells

One step closer to gut repair

Nature volume 485, pages 181–182 (2012)Cite this article

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The use of adult-tissue stem cells to treat gastrointestinal diseases holds much promise. A method for in vitro growth of gut stem cells and their use in repairing damaged intestines in mice has been described.

Adult-tissue stem cells have a property that makes them attractive to researchers in the emerging field of regenerative medicine. In contrast to most other cells from adult tissues, they can self-renew and generate the specific cell types that comprise the organs from which they are derived. Under the correct conditions, adult stem cells should be capable of generating fully functional, organ-specific tissues that would retain regenerative capacity and could restore the normal organ function of patients. In particular, stem-cell therapies might be beneficial for gastrointestinal disorders in which normal gut is lacking or damaged, as in short-bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel disease. Now Yui and colleagues1 describe in Nature Medicine how single stem cells from the mouse colon can be grown in vitro to produce mini-organs of epithelial tissue that can engraft onto a damaged intestine in mice.

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Figure 1: Fixing a damaged intestine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Anisa Shaker and Deborah C. Rubin are in the Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, Missouri 63110, USA.,

    Anisa Shaker & Deborah C. Rubin

  2. D.C.R. is also in the Department of Developmental Biology, Washington University School of Medicine.,

    Deborah C. Rubin

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  1. Anisa Shaker
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  2. Deborah C. Rubin
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Correspondence to Deborah C. Rubin.

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Shaker, A., Rubin, D. One step closer to gut repair. Nature 485, 181–182 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/485181a

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