title: Mathematical modelling and experiments for the proliferation and differentiation of Drosophila intestinal stem cells II.
abstract: The Drosophila posterior midgut epithelium mainly consists of intestinal stem cells (ISCs); semi-differentiated cells, i.e. enteroblasts (EBs); and two types of fully differentiated cells, i.e. enteroendocrine cells (EEs) and enterocytes (ECs), which are controlled by signalling pathways. In [M. Kuwamura, K. Maeda, and T. Adachi-Yamada, Mathematical modeling and experiments for the proliferation and differentiation of Drosophila intestinal stem cells I, J. Biol. Dyn. 4 (2009), pp. 248-257], on the basis of the functions of the Wnt and Notch signalling pathways, we studied the regulatory mechanism for the proliferation and differentiation of ISCs under the assumption that the Wnt proteins are supplied from outside the cellular system of ISCs. In this paper, we experimentally show that the Wnt proteins are specifically expressed in ISCs, EBs, and EEs, and theoretically show that the cellular system of ISCs can be self-maintained under the assumption that the Wnt proteins are produced in the cellular system of ISCs. These results provide a useful basis for determining whether an environmental niche is required for maintaining the cellular system of tissue stem cells.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Kobe University, Kobe, 657-8501, Japan. kuwamura@main.h.kobe-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Masataka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kuwamura
authors.forename: Kousuke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Maeda
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Adachi-Yamada
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D007422:Intestines / Q000166:cytology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D051153:Wnt Proteins / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D051153:Wnt Proteins