Morphometric analysis of the small intestine in wild type mice C57BL/6L -- a developmental study

Recently the increasing prevalence of gastrointestinal diseases, including neoplasm, has resulted in the necessity of characterising not only the tumours, but also healthy mucosa. Research into the morphological changes of healthy mucosa under different experimental conditions, including drugs, special diets and the use of probiotic bacteria, is greatly facilitated by the availability of animal models. In spite of the widespread use of mice in gastrointestinal research, there is a lack of information on the qualitative and quantitative histological characteristics of the intestinal mucosa of the mouse. The aim of this study was to assess the morphological characteristics and the postnatal development of the small intestine of wild type mice -- C57BL/6J. The mice were aged either 5 weeks or 12 weeks. The 12-week-old mice had been weaned at the age of 5 weeks. After dissection the small intestine was divided into 5 equal portions and randomly chosen microscopical sections from each were stained with haematoxylin and eosin. The parameters describing the morphology of the small intestine (villus height, depth of the crypt, villus width near the crypt, width of the villus connective tissue near the crypt, thickness of the muscular layer and the height of the enterocytes and their nuclei) were evaluated under a light microscope. In both age groups the height and width of the villi decreased, while the thickness of the muscular layer increased in the distal direction. The height of the enterocytes decreased and the height of the enterocyte nucleus increased towards the colon in both age groups. The depth of the crypts was greater in the younger animals than in the older ones. Our data provides the baseline morphological description of the small intestinal mucosa in wild type mice, strain C57BL/6J, which can be used as a reference for testing the influence of drugs, toxins, nutrients and inborn mutations on the mouse intestine.