Tissue derived from gut stem cells can repair intestinal damage when transplanted into mice.

Mamoru Watanabe at the Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Hans Clevers at the Hubrecht Institute and University Medical Centre in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and their colleagues cultured intestinal fragments from mice and transplanted the cells, which included colonic stem cells, into mice with acute colitis. These mice gained more weight than untreated mice during the first week after treatment, and four weeks after transplantation the repaired intestinal lining seemed to be identical to the surrounding native tissue.

Colonic tissue grown from a single stem cell and placed in the mouse gut also regenerated the lining. Culturing colonic tissue from stem cells could be a therapeutic approach for human intestinal disorders such as colitis, the authors say.

Nature Med. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nm.2695 (2012)