The 'Min' (multiple intestinal neoplasia) mutation: its effects on gut epithelial cell differentiation and interaction with a modifier system

The intestinal tumors of B6-Min/+ mice, a mutant strain that develops multiple intestinal adenomas along the duodenal-to-colonic axis (DCA), were studied as to their cellular differentiation. Molecular markers specific for enterocytes, enteroendocrine, goblet and Paneth cells showed that a given tumor contains all cell types as well as undifferentiated cells, and expression of gene products by the cells was appropriate for the region on the DCA. These results indicate that adenomasmay each arise from single, mutated, multipotent stem cells in the intestinal crypts.