Fre Silvia, Huyghe Mathilde, Mourikis Philippos, Robine Sylvie, Louvard Daniel, Artavanis-Tsakonas Spyros
Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129, USA.
Nature. 2005 Jun 16;435(7044):964-8. doi: 10.1038/nature03589.
The Notch signalling pathway plays a crucial role in specifying cellular fates in metazoan development by regulating communication between adjacent cells. Correlative studies suggested an involvement of Notch in intestinal development. Here, by modulating Notch activity in the mouse intestine, we directly implicate Notch signals in intestinal cell lineage specification. We also show that Notch activation is capable of amplifying the intestinal progenitor pool while inhibiting cell differentiation. We conclude that Notch activity is required for the maintenance of proliferating crypt cells in the intestinal epithelium.
Notch信号通路通过调节相邻细胞间的通讯，在后生动物发育过程中细胞命运的特化方面发挥着关键作用。相关研究表明Notch参与肠道发育。在此，通过调节小鼠肠道中的Notch活性，我们直接证明Notch信号参与肠道细胞谱系特化。我们还表明，Notch激活能够扩大肠道祖细胞库，同时抑制细胞分化。我们得出结论，Notch活性是维持肠道上皮增殖性隐窝细胞所必需的。
