Nature Communications (Mar 2018)

Wnt ligands influence tumour initiation by controlling the number of intestinal stem cells

  • D. J. Huels,
  • L. Bruens,
  • M. C. Hodder,
  • P. Cammareri,
  • A. D. Campbell,
  • R. A. Ridgway,
  • D. M. Gay,
  • M. Solar-Abboud,
  • W. J. Faller,
  • C. Nixon,
  • L. B. Zeiger,
  • M. E. McLaughlin,
  • E. Morrissey,
  • D. J. Winton,
  • H. J. Snippert,
  • J. van Rheenen,
  • O. J. Sansom

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03426-2
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

Read online

Wnt ligands are essential for intestinal homoeostasis and stem cell maintenance. Here, the authors show that reduction in Wnt secretion reduces the number of intestinal stem cells; this results in rapid fixation of mutated stem cells and accelerated adenoma formation due to lack of cell competition.