Both children and adults suffer from diseases of their intestinal tract that often lead to small bowel tumors, inflammatory bowel diseases or absorptive impairments. Correction of many of these diseases has often relied on transplantation of healthy small intestine to replace the diseased intestine, however the number of patients requiring transplants far exceeds the number of organs available. Recent advances in stem cell biology may provide alternatives to restoring bowel function in this population.

Intestinal stem cells resident in proliferative crypt regions of the small intestine give rise to progenitor cells capable of multilineage differentiation. The small intestine is one of the most regenerative mammalian tissues, undergoing complete renewal of the epithelial layer every 5 to 7 days under normal circumstances. The objective of this study is to transplant healthy intestinal stem cells into diseased mice and examine the contribution of the healthy intestinal stem cells to the regeneration of the intestinal epithelium. Our broader goal is to develop a cellular-based therapy to repopulate the intestine, ultimately restoring healthy function to the organ and bypassing the need for whole organ transplantation.