Title: The intestinal stem cell
Headings: The intestinal stem cell
The intestinal stem cell
Abstract
Keywords
Quiescence and asymmetric cell division
Surrogate markers for stemness: DNA label retention
Anatomy of the adult small and large intestine
Cell renewal and stem cells in the intestinal epithelium
Stem cells: two schools of thought
Wnt target genes as candidate stem cell markers
Acknowledgments
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Content: 2003 ). The intestinal tract can be anatomically divided into two well-defined segments: the small intestine and the large intestine  or colon. The small intestine is subdivided into three proximal-distal segments: the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. The absorptive  surface area of the small intestine is dramatically increased by numerous finger-like protrusions that point toward the lumen,  the so-called villi, and invaginations into the submucosa known as the crypts of Lieberkühn. The mucosa of the large intestine  lacks villi; crypts invaginate deep into the submucosa. Four differentiated cell types mediate the functions of the intestinal epithelium ( Sancho et al. 2003 ): absorptive, enteroendocrine, mucosecreting, and Paneth cells.