The intestinal epithelium is in a constant state of renewal. The rapid turnover of cells is fed by a hierarchy of transit amplifying and stem/progenitor cells destined to give rise to the four differentiated epithelial lineages of the small intestine. Doxorubicin (Dox) is a commonly used chemotherapeutic agent that preferentially induces apoptosis in the intestinal stem cell zone (SCZ). We hypo...

The concept that tumors are maintained by dedicated stem cells, the so-called cancer stem cell hypothesis, has attracted great interest but remains controversial. Studying mouse models, we provide direct, functional evidence for the presence of stem cell activity within primary intestinal adenomas, a precursor to intestinal cancer. By "lineage retracing" using the multicolor Cre-reporter R26R-C...

the stem cells can be considered as the miracle of creation, because, they are a major reservoir of the bioactive factors, molecules and cells. these reservoir cells play a major role in development and growth of the tissues and organs. regardless of the differences in differentiation capacity of embryonic and adult stem cells, both the cells are rich sources of stem cells with therapeutic appl...

stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth (shed) have been introduced recently and  possess characteristics similar to  mesenchymal stem  cells (mscs). because of  their convenient accessibility and safety of harvest, shed can be a preferable source for the ever- increasing mscs’ applications. while they are new, their immunoproperties have not been adequately studied. in this study, we ...

In the amphibian intestine during metamorphosis, de novo stem cells generate the adult epithelium analogous to the mammalian counterpart. Interestingly, to date the exact origin of these stem cells remains to be determined, making intestinal metamorphosis a unique model to study development of adult organ-specific stem cells. Here, to determine their origin, we made use of transgenic Xenopus ta...

Somatic cells have been proposed to be limited in the number of cell divisions they can undergo. This is thought to be a mechanism by which stem cells retain their integrity preventing disease. However, we have recently discovered intestinal crypt stem cells that persist for the lifetime of a mouse, yet divide every day. We now demonstrate biochemically that primary isolated Lgr5+ve stem cells ...