Interestingly, it appears that the frequency of organoid formation in vitro is increased if Lgr5-expressing cells are cultured in the presence of Paneth cells.121 This reflects the topographic arrangement within the crypt, where Lgr5-expressing cells are interspersed between Paneth cells, and is consistent with the observation that blockade of monocyte cytokine CSF-1 receptor signaling results in Paneth cell loss and a concomitant reduction of Lgr5 expression.122 It should not be ignored that Paneth cells serve in the immune system’s first line of defense, as well as being immediately intercalated in the stem cell niche. Like

most epithelial cells, crypt cells have a preference to aggregate and respond to soluble and extracellular matrix-derived signals. It remains to be established whether adding back Erlotinib other cell types from the niche environment influences the capacity to grow organoid cultures from Lgr5-expressing cells. The ability to grow such organoids (Fig. 4) now affords opportunities to explore the role of various signaling pathways by culturing primary stem cells from mutant mice120,123 and CRC-initiating cells.124,125 Expanding

the latter in immunocompromised mice126 has already started to provide novel insights in understanding intestinal biology and to allow investigators to address the enormous complexity of host–cancer interplay as it impacts upon the neoplastic target cells for transformation and progression to fully see more invasive CRC. In conclusion, we have GSK2126458 attempted to show the

utility in studying CRC as a complex entity that embraces the epithelial tumor, along with an array of other tissue elements that collectively constitute the tumor microenvironment. The development of tissue-specific, inducible mouse mutants now allows for the detailed molecular dissection of the disease process. The combination of these mutants enables us to start rebuilding the interactions that most certainly occur in vivo. With technical advances, including live cell in vivo imaging technologies, in vivo cell ablation strategies, and miniaturized mouse colonoscopies, we can now monitor and control early events in the genesis of adenomas without killing the mice (Fig. 5). As in humans, the latter device provides the opportunity to introduce therapeutic interventions and to collect tissue biopsies. However, the ability to reproducibly isolate and grow intestinal stem cells and to form organoids is likely to enable us to conditionally modify their genomes by inducing Cre activity in vitro and to complement observations of corresponding mutations in vivo. We predict that these and other future studies will further cement the concept illustrated here that a small set of transcription factors, which act as common signaling nodes, will ultimately determine if and when the homeostatic process is subverted to support tumor progression and development of metastatic CRC.