Vitamin D and the nutritional environment in functions of intestinal stem cells: implications for tumorigenesis and prevention

•In mice fed control diets, Lgr5hi crypt base cells divide to continually regenerate the intestinal mucosa as cells differentiate and are lost.•Multiple intestinal cell populations can serve as stem-like cells on loss of Lgr5hi stem cell functions by damage or experimental manipulation.•Nutrients can also marshal stem cell plasticity, especially reduced vitamin D level or inactivation of the Lgr5hi cell vitamin D receptor gene.•Therefore, which and how intestinal cells contribute stem cell functions in humans may depend on level of vitamin D and other nutrient exposures.•Persistent epigenetic and genetic changes in long-lived stem cells may suggest that prevention trials have been much too short to be conclusive.