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Intestinal stem cells are multipotent adult stem cells, which in mammals reside in the base of the crypts of the adult intestine. Intestinal stem cells continuously self-renew by dividing and differentiate into the specialised cells of the intestinal epithelium, which renews throughout life.
Zhang et al. illustrate a spatial activation pattern of JNK signaling within the intestinal stem cell lineage and uncover a paracrine JNK-EGFR-JNK feedforward loop that sustains ISC proliferation during stress-induced gut regeneration.
How LGR4 impacts nutrition absorption and energy homeostasis is unknown. Here, the authors show that LGR4 loss in the intestinal epithelium decreases the proportion of enterocytes selective for long-chain fatty acid absorption, reducing lipid absorption and improving lipid and glucose metabolism.
The large intestine mucosa possesses a surprising plasticity to switch on small intestine genes. Here, Wei G. et al. show that a chromatin complex composed of SATB2, MTA2 and HNF4A regulates this tissue plasticity in the adult gut.
McCarthy et al. identify distinct populations of smooth muscle cells in the intestine that support the establishment of the intestinal stem cell niche during postnatal development by supplying trophic signals to enable niche expansion.