TP53 and colonic neoplasm: The current investigation was, therefore, undertaken to study the in vitro expansion of colonospheres that display the characteristics of CSCs and to delineate the role of Wnt/β-catenin pathway in regulating the growth and maintenance of colonospheres using three different human colon cancer cells: HCT-116 (p53 wild-type; K-ras mutant), HCT-116 (p53 null; K-ras mutant) and HT-29 (p53 mutant, K-ras wild-type).