Intestinal Stem Cells
A special issue of Cells (ISSN 2073-4409). This special issue belongs to the section "Stem Cells".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 January 2026 | Viewed by 14
Special Issue Editors
Interests: intestinal stem cells; inflammatory bowel disease; intestinal cancer; signaling; chromatin
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: regulation of intestinal nutrient transporters on obesity and inflammatory bowel disease and cancer
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Intestinal stem cells (ISCs) are pivotal in clinical research due to their essential role in maintaining intestinal health and their potential applications in regenerative medicine, in vitro disease modeling, and development of novel therapeutics. These play a crucial role in the continuous renewal of the intestinal cells lining.
Self-Renewal and Differentiation
The intestinal epithelium is renewed approximately every 4–5 days, a process driven by the self-proliferation of ISCs to produce one daughter stem cell and one progenitor cell, known as a transit-amplifying (TA) cell. TA cells further proliferate and differentiate into the four main types of intestinal epithelial cells, namely enterocytes (absorptive cells), goblet cells (mucus-producing), enteroendocrine cells (hormone-producing), and Paneth cells (antimicrobial peptide-producing).
The rapid development of mature differentiated cells is vital for repairing intestinal cell damage caused by microbial infection and inflammation. Several signaling pathways are involved in regulating ISCs, such as Wnt signaling, which is crucial for ISC proliferation and self-renewal; Notch signaling, which regulates the differentiation of progenitor cells into specific lineages, balancing the production of various cell types within the epithelium; and BMP and TGF-β pathways, which act as negative regulators of ISC proliferation and differentiation, ensuring proper tissue homeostasis. Dysregulation of these pathways can lead to impaired regeneration and is associated with malfunction of nutrient adsorption and the intestinal barrier and may lead to gastrointestinal cancer.
Clinical Relevance
Understanding ISC biology has significant implications for various medical conditions: human intestinal organoid model involves culturing ISCs to form three-dimensional structures resembling the intestine, which can be utilized to treat conditions like microvillus inclusion disease by transplanting them into the affected bowel. Intestinal organoids serve as potential preclinical models for studying gastrointestinal diseases and testing drug efficacy. These models have been instrumental in understanding the intestinal nutrient transporter regulation, pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases and colorectal cancer, and screening of potential therapeutic agents. Generating organoids from individual patients provides an opportunity to create personalized models that reflect the unique genetic and environmental factors influencing more personalized treatment approaches and better outcomes. The gut microbiota plays a crucial role in regulating ISC function and intestinal homeostasis. Research into the interactions between ISCs and the microbiota is shedding light on how microbial communities influence stem cell behavior and contribute to health and disease.
Dr. Natalia Soshnikova
Dr. Arunkumar Jagadeesan
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- stem cells
- self-renewal
- enterocytes
- intestinal organoid
- villus
- crypt
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