A microengineered collagen scaffold for generating a polarized crypt-villus architecture of human small intestinal epithelium.

ABSTRACT: The human small intestinal epithelium possesses a distinct crypt-villus architecture and tissue polarity in which proliferative cells reside inside crypts while differentiated cells are localized to the villi. Indirect evidence has shown that the processes of differentiation and migration are driven in part by biochemical gradients of factors that specify the polarity of these cellular compartments; however, direct evidence for gradient-driven patterning of this in vivo architecture has been hampered by limitations of the in vitro systems available. Enteroid cultures are a powerful in vitro system; nevertheless, these spheroidal structures fail to replicate the architecture and lineage compartmentalization found in vivo, and are not easily subjected to gradients of growth factors. In the c

SUBMITTER: Wang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5392043 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature