TCF7L1 Controls the Differentiation of Tuft Cells in Mouse Small Intestine

Continuous and rapid renewal of the intestinal epithelium depends on intestinal stem cells (ISCs). A large repertoire of transcription factors mediates the correct maintenance and differentiation of ISCs along either absorptive or secretory lineages. In the present study, we addressed the role of TCF7L1, a negative regulator of WNT signalling, in embryonic and adult intestinal epithelium using conditional mouse mutants. We found that TCF7L1 prevents precocious differentiation of the embryonic intestinal epithelial progenitors towards enterocytes and ISCs. We show that Tcf7l1 deficiency leads to upregulation of the Notch effector Rbp-J, resulting in a subsequent loss of embryonic secretory progenitors. In the adult small intestine, TCF7L1 is required for the differentiation of secretory epithelial progenitors along the tuft cell lineage. Furthermore, we show that Tcf7l1 promotes the differentiation of enteroendocrine D- and L-cells in the anterior small intestine. We conclude that TCF7L1-mediated repression of both Notch and WNT pathways is essential for the correct differentiation of intestinal secretory progenitors.