Dietary regulation of intestinal stem cells in health and disease

Abstract

Diet is a critical regulator for physiological metabolism and tissue homeostasis, with a close relation to health and disease. As an important organ for digestion and absorption, the intestine comes into direct contact with many dietary components. The rapid renewal of its mucosal epithelium depends on the continuous proliferation and differentiation of intestinal stem cells (ISCs). The function and metabolism of ISCs can be controlled by a variety of dietary patterns including calorie restriction, fasting, high-fat, ketogenic, and high-sugar diets, as well as different nutrients including vitamins, amino acids, dietary fibre, and probiotics. Therefore, dietary interventions targeting ISCs may make it possible to prevent and treat intestinal disorders such as colon cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, and radiation enteritis. This review summarised recent research on the role and mechanism of diet in regulating ISCs, and discussed the potential of dietary modulation for intestinal diseases.

Keywords:

• Intestinal stem cell
• diet
• nutrient
• signalling pathway
• regulation

Acknowledgements

The graphical abstracts were created with BioRender software (BioRender.com).

Authors’ contributions

Conceptualisation: Z.F., J.Z. and J.H.; Methodology: J.H; Writing-original draft: H.F., J.W., and K.Y.; Visualisation: K.Y.; Writing-review & editing: C.X., S.X., X.W. and J.H.; Project administration: Z.F. and J.Z.; Funding acquisition: J.H. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The study was partially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province (Grant No. 20224BAB216025), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 82260315), and Central Funds Guiding the Local Science and Technology Development (Grant No. 20221ZDG020071). The funding body played no role in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript.