Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 1992 Oct;141(4):773-6.

A stem cell niche theory of intestinal crypt maintenance based on a study of somatic mutation in colonic mucosa

E D Williams  1 , A P Lowes, D Williams, G T Williams
Affiliations

A stem cell niche theory of intestinal crypt maintenance based on a study of somatic mutation in colonic mucosa

E D Williams et al. Am J Pathol. 1992 Oct.

Abstract

In both large and small intestine, mutagen administration leads to the occurrence of isolated crypts that are completely populated by a mutated phenotype; therefore, it has been proposed that crypts are maintained by a single stem cell. We show in mice that a single dose of mutagen leads to an early transient increase in frequency of colonic crypts that show a partial mutated phenotype and a later increase in frequency of crypts that show a complete mutated phenotype. This increase reaches a plateau at about the same time as the disappearance of partially mutated crypts. The same is true in the small intestine, but the time course is much slower. We propose an explanation based on multiple crypt stem cells that occupy a "stem cell niche," with random cell loss after stem cell division. A small difference in the number of crypt stem cells that occupy the niche provides a simple explanation for the surprisingly large difference in the time course of phenotypic changes in the large and small intestines after administration of a single dose of mutagen.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Blood Cells. 1978;4(1-2):7-25 - PubMed
    1. Development. 1990 Dec;110(4):1001-20 - PubMed
    1. Nature. 1988 Jun 2;333(6172):463-6 - PubMed
    1. Development. 1988 Aug;103(4):785-90 - PubMed
    1. Proc Biol Sci. 1990 Jul 23;241(1300):13-8 - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources