Overview
- The Nature study, published Wednesday, reports that colitis leaves durable epigenetic changes in colon stem cells that prime tissue for cancer.
- Researchers built a single-cell method that reads gene activity, chromatin access in DNA, and each cell’s family tree at the same time.
- After inflammation faded, some cells kept DNA regions open even when genes looked normal, and stem cells passed this epigenetic memory to their descendants.
- Tissues carrying this memory formed larger, faster-growing tumors after a cancer-driving mutation was introduced in mice, supporting a two-hit model of disease.
- The team is now checking if these molecular scars show up in human stool for risk screening and potential prevention, though the mechanism remains unproven in people.