Epithelial stem cells: an epigenetic and Wnt-centric perspective.

Epithelial stem cells, such as those present in mammalian skin, intestine, or mammary gland, are tissue stem cells capable of both long-term self-renewal and multi-lineage differentiation. Here we review studies implicating epigenetic control mechanisms in mammalian epithelial stem cell development and homeostasis. We also provide an update of recent progresses in the involvement of canonical Wnt signaling and note an interesting link between the Wnt pathway and chromatin regulation in epithelial stem cells. We anticipate that epigenetic and epigenomic studies of these cells will increase exponentially in the near future. (c) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.