Abstract
In the adult vertebrate intestine, multi-potent stem cells continuously generate all of the epithelial cells throughout the adulthood. While it has long been known that the frog intestine is formed via the development of adult intestinal stem cells during thyroid hormone (TH)-dependent metamorphosis, the basic structure of the adult intestine is formed by birth in mammals and it is unclear if the subsequent maturation of the intestine involves any changes in the intestinal stem cells. Two recent papers showing that B lymphocyte-induced maturation protein 1 (Blimp1) regulates postnatal epithelial stem cell reprogramming during mouse intestinal maturation support the model that adult intestinal stem cells are developed during postembryonic development in mammals, in a TH-dependent process similar to intestinal remodeling during amphibian metamorphosis. Since the formation of the adult intestine in both mammals and amphibians is closely associated with the adaptation from aquatic to terrestrial life during the peak of endogenous TH levels, the molecular mechanisms by which the adult stem cells are developed are likely evolutionally conserved.
Highlights
The epithelium of the mammalian intestine rapidly undergoes cell-renewal originating from stem cells localized near the bottom of crypts throughout the adulthood
While a growing number of studies have identified many markers for the adult stem cells and key signaling pathways involved in the epithelial cell-renewal in the mammalian adult intestine [1,2], it still remains a mystery from what cells and how the adult stem cells are formed during development
* Correspondence: a-oka@nms.ac.jp; shi@helix.nih.gov 1Department of Biology, Nippon Medical School, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 2110063, Japan 2Section on Molecular Morphogenesis, Laboratory of Gene Regulation and Development, Program in Cellular Regulation and Metabolism (PCRM), Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland, 20892, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
Summary
The epithelium of the mammalian intestine rapidly undergoes cell-renewal originating from stem cells localized near the bottom of crypts throughout the adulthood. * Correspondence: a-oka@nms.ac.jp; shi@helix.nih.gov 1Department of Biology, Nippon Medical School, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 2110063, Japan 2Section on Molecular Morphogenesis, Laboratory of Gene Regulation and Development, Program in Cellular Regulation and Metabolism (PCRM), Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland, 20892, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
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