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World J Gastroenterol. Apr 28, 2023; 29(16): 2380-2396
Published online Apr 28, 2023. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v29.i16.2380
Molecular regulation mechanism of intestinal stem cells in mucosal injury and repair in ulcerative colitis
Lie Zheng, Sheng-Lei Duan
Lie Zheng, Sheng-Lei Duan, Department of Gastroenterology, Shaanxi Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Xi’an 730000, Shaanxi Province, China
Author contributions: Zheng L contributed to the conception and design of the study and performed to the writing of the manuscript; Zheng L and Duan SL contributed to literature search, drafting of the manuscript, and providing approval of the final version to be published.
Supported by Shaanxi Province Natural Science Basic Research Program-General Project, No: 2019JM-580; Project of Shaanxi Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. 2019-ZZ-JC010; Key R&D Projects in Shaanxi Province, No. 2021SF-314.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Lie Zheng, MD, Researcher, Department of Gastroenterology, Shaanxi Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. 4 Xihuamen Street, Lianhu District, Xi’an 730000, Shaanxi Province, China. liezhenglie@163.com
Received: September 18, 2022
Peer-review started: September 18, 2022
First decision: November 26, 2022
Revised: January 26, 2023
Accepted: April 7, 2023
Article in press: April 7, 2023
Published online: April 28, 2023
Processing time: 218 Days and 11.1 Hours
Abstract

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic nonspecific inflammatory disease with complex causes. The main pathological changes were intestinal mucosal injury. Leucine-rich repeat-containing G protein coupled receptor 5 (LGR5)-labeled small intestine stem cells (ISCs) were located at the bottom of the small intestine recess and inlaid among Paneth cells. LGR5+ small ISCs are active proliferative adult stem cells, and their self-renewal, proliferation and differentiation disorders are closely related to the occurrence of intestinal inflammatory diseases. The Notch signaling pathway and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway are important regulators of LGR5-positive ISCs and together maintain the function of LGR5-positive ISCs. More importantly, the surviving stem cells after intestinal mucosal injury accelerate division, restore the number of stem cells, multiply and differentiate into mature intestinal epithelial cells, and repair the damaged intestinal mucosa. Therefore, in-depth study of multiple pathways and transplantation of LGR5-positive ISCs may become a new target for the treatment of UC.

Keywords: Molecular regulation, Mucosal injury, Regeneration, Ulcerative colitis

Core Tip: Intestinal mucosal injury is an important pathological change in ulcerative colitis (UC), and Leucine-rich repeat-containing G protein coupled receptor 5 (LGR5)-positive intestinal stem cells play an important role in the repair of intestinal mucosal injury. Through in-depth study of multiple signals, LGR5-positive intestine stem cell transplantation therapy may become an important means to treat UC.