Figure 4. Villus and intervillus cells are equipotent and have the same regenerative potential.

a) Formation of spheroids from epithelial cells isolated based on DAPI^negEpCAM^posCD44^pos and DAPI^negEpCAM^posCD44^neg from the proximal half of the small intestine from mice at E16.5. A representative picture of n=3 independent samples is shown.

b) Spheroids following treatment with Wnt3a. A representative picture of n=3 independent samples is shown.

c) Formation of spheroids from epithelial cells isolated based on DAPI^negCD44^pos and DAPI^negCD44^neg from the proximal half of the human fetal small intestine (8 weeks of gestation). A representative picture of n=2 independent samples is shown.

d) Engraftment of spheroids derived from DAPI^negEpCAM^posCD44^pos and DAPI^negEpCAM^posCD44^neg obtained from E16.5 mT/mG animals. Four out of six mice were engrafted with CD44^neg-derived cells and five out of five in CD44^pos-derived cells. Scale bars: 10mm. A representative picture of independent engraftments is shown (CD44^neg n=4; CD44^pos n=5)

e) Detection of CD44v6, Lyz1, Muc2 and ALPI in serial section of the engrafted patches (red). Scale bars: 50μm. A representative picture of independent engraftments is shown (CD44^neg n=4; CD44^pos n=5)