Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
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.
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.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is featured with epithelial barrier dysfunction, however, the underlying mechanism is less clear. Here, the authors show that DHX9 deficiency in intestinal stem cells (ISCs) induces accumulation of abnormal R-loops and subsequent genomic instability, leading to impairment of ISCs and development of IBD.
The mechanisms underlying cell plasticity remain poorly understood. Here, Guo et.al discover that intestinal cells in the fly gut can alter their fates through the loss of a single gene, and identify several molecular barriers to cell reprogramming.
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.