Epigenetic Memory of Mouse Intestinal Inflammation

The gut, encompassing one of the largest epithelial surfaces in the body, interacts with both biological and non-biological agents that can cause regular injury. Fortunately, the small intestinal epithelium has a remarkable capacity to repair itself after severe injury, due to the abundance of highly replicative stem cells housed in the intestinal crypt regions. Much remains to be understood about the activation processes of the repair mechanisms and to what extent the stem cells themselves can adapt to certain forms of damage, including molecular mechanisms related to gene regulation. Here, I show that in response to acute inflammation, chromatin in intestinal stem cells has increased accessibility around specific loci and that this state is maintained in some regions even after the epithelium has recovered from damage, suggesting the possibility of memory. Such epigenetic memory may confer some adaptive resiliency to subsequent damage.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Magnell, Albert T.(Albert Thomas)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Aviv Regev.

• Biology.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/130670

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/130670