Commentary Cell Science Reviews Vol 6 No 1 ISSN 1742-8130

A new culture: Growing intestinal epithelium in vitro

For almost 100 years, the prospect of culturing intestinal epithelium to successfully mimic the growth and lineage differentiation that occurs in vivo has been the ultimate challenge due to the inherent nature of the rapidly renewing population and the elusiveness of the intestinal stem cell. Numerous groups have attempted this quest with variable degrees of success, and until recently always fell short of the goal of achieving a long-term culture and a full range of lineage differentiation. These key requirements are important for experimental questions that require an in vitro system representative of true intestinal epithelium.

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