Cell dynamics in the intestine of the mouse from late fetal life to maturity

✍ Scribed by O'Connor, Thomas M.

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1966
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 829 KB
• Volume: 118
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0002-9106
• DOI: 10.1002/aja.1001180212

✦ Synopsis

A normal developmental pattern of the mitotic index, growth of villi and crypts, rate of cell extrusion, and number of villi per duodenal cross section is presented for mice ranging i n age from the seventeenth day of gestation through 48 days after birth. These patterns are correlated with the normal increases in both length and weight of the intestine as a whole during this period. Two periods were observed during which there is a 25% reduction i n the mitotic index. There is essen- tially n o change in the mitotic index after the twenty-first postnatal day. Approximately 43% of the 48-day villus-crypt height is reached by birth, and approximately 83% of the 48-day level is reached by the twenty-first day. No extrusion zones were observed in mice before birth, and a threefold increase in the rate of extrusion was observed between the fifteenth and twenty-first postnatal day. Growth of the villuscrypt epithelial cell population appears to be a result of a rate of cell extrusion which is much lower i n the young than in the adult animal.