Epigenetic Memory of Mouse Intestinal Inflammation
Name
1251767440-MIT.pdf
Size
5.53 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
4c6d70255aa4e05d19154c9b599289f7
Author(s)
Magnell, Albert T.(Albert Thomas)
Advisor(s)
Aviv Regev.
Date Issued
2021
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
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.
Description
Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biology, 2021
Cataloged from the official PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 29-31).
Subjects
Biology.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology
Terms of Use
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.
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