Study resolves long-disputed theory about stem cell populations

A team of researchers has helped identify key characteristics that distinguish reserve stem cells from other stem cell populations that had been purported to have similar properties. The work, which employed single-cell gene expression analyses as well as other cutting-edge techniques, demonstrated that, in the intestines, reserve stem cells are a distinct population from so-called ‘label-retaining cells.’ The two populations were long believed to be one and the same.