{"doi":"10.1038/nature07935","title":"Single Lgr5 stem cells build crypt-villus structures in vitro without a mesenchymal niche","abstract":"The intestinal epithelium is the most rapidly self-renewing tissue in adult mammals. We have recently demonstrated the presence of about six cycling Lgr5(+) stem cells at the bottoms of small-intestinal crypts. Here we describe the establishment of long-term culture conditions under which single crypts undergo multiple crypt fission events, while simultanously generating villus-like epithelial domains in which all differentiated cell types are present. Single sorted Lgr5(+) stem cells can also initiate these cryptvillus organoids. Tracing experiments indicate that the Lgr5(+) stem-cell hierarchy is maintained in organoids. We conclude that intestinal cryptvillus units are self-organizing structures, which can be built from a single stem cell in the absence of a non-epithelial cellular niche.","journal":"Nature","year":2009,"id":7422,"datarank":12.809702191594644,"base_score":8.86120833720818,"endowment":8.86120833720818,"self_citation_contribution":1.329181250581227,"citation_network_contribution":11.480520941013417,"self_endowment_contribution":1.329181250581227,"citer_contribution":11.480520941013417,"corpus_percentile":88.1,"corpus_rank":1668,"citation_count":7052,"citer_count":128,"citers_with_citation_signal":128,"citers_with_endowment":128,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2009-03-29","authors":[{"id":66010,"name":"Robert G. Vries","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":60934,"name":"Hugo J Snippert","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":15639,"name":"Marc van de Wetering","orcid":"0000-0002-8195-9939","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":15637,"name":"Nick Barker","orcid":"0000-0003-3566-4475","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":15631,"name":"Daniel E. Stange","orcid":"0000-0003-4246-2230","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":15636,"name":"Johan H. van Es","orcid":"0000-0002-1338-7078","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":66011,"name":"Arie Abo","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":15629,"name":"Pekka Kujala","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":15638,"name":"Peter J. Peters","orcid":"0000-0002-2964-5684","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":3646,"name":"Hans Clevers","orcid":"0000-0002-3077-5582","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":29638,"name":"Robert G.J. Vries","orcid":"0009-0009-1408-1175","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":60938,"name":"Hugo J.G. Snippert","orcid":"0000-0002-4189-5213","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":38044,"name":"Toshiro Sato","orcid":"0000-0001-8353-8137","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":30,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-03-01T18:20:47.508186Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}