Gene expression profiles of WT and Vil-CREPTKO intestinal cyrpts

Intestinal stem cells (ISCs) residing in the crypts are critical for the continual self-renewal and rapid recovery of intestinal epithelium. The regulatory mechanism of ISCs is not fully understood. Here we report that CREPT, a recently identified tumor-promoting gene, is preferably expressed in the crypts, where the ISCs reside, but not in the villi. To explore the function of CREPT in ISCs, we isolated crypts to perform Next generation sequencing. To verify the role of CREPT in intestine, we knock out CREPT in intestinal epithelium by introducing villin-cre into CREPT flox/flox mice. Crypts were disaggregated from intestinal epithelium of WT and Vil-CREPTKO mice. Total RNAs were extracted from crypts, and sequenced by Illumina XTEN