Building Blocks for Engineering the Small Intestine

Bowel transplantation represents the current standard of care for patients suffering from severe intestinal disorders such as short bowel syndrome. Despite improvements in surgical procedures, there remains an approximate 50% 5-year survival rate for intestinal transplant patients [55]. Currently, the primary barriers to successful organ transplantation are the lack of transplantable tissue, the potential for transplant rejection, and the requirement of lifelong immunosuppression [35]. These challenges highlight the need to fully explore the developing field of intestinal epithelial stem cell biology and their ability for ex vivo expansion of tissue in order to reach the ultimate goal of engineering personalized transplantable intestine from patient-derived cells.