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Updated: Feb 7, 2026

Recapitulating Suckling-to-Weaning Transition In Vitro using Fetal Intestinal Organoids
Published on: November 15, 2019
Intestinal Crypts Assume the Fetal Position in Response to Injury
1Columbia Center for Human Development, Columbia Stem Cell Initiative, Department of Medicine, Division of Digestive and Liver Diseases, and Department of Genetics & Development, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY 10032, USA.
Abstract:
Distinct stem/progenitor cells generate intestinal epithelium during fetal and postnatal life. In a recent issue of Nature, Nusse and Savage et al. use helminth infection to show that Lgr5+ intestinal stem cells are replaced by fetal-like progenitors following injury, suggesting that some fetal developmental pathways are repurposed during injury-induced tissue regeneration.
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