Improved isolation of villus and crypt cells from rat small intestinal mucosa

An enzymic method is described which allows the isolation under comparable conditions of crypt and villus cells from rat jejunum with normal morphologic appearance and high metabolic activity when compared with previous preparations. The method is based on a differential scraping of short lengths of everted small intestine to yield two villus cell fractions and a gut wall residue. The scrapings and the gut tube are incubated for the same length of time in a HEPES-buffered modified Hanks' balanced salt solution containing hyaluronidase, DNase, and soybean trypsin inhibitor. The cells of the crypt region are recovered by a further scraping of the digested gut wall. Cells from all fractions are dispersed by gentle agitation, washed, and harvested by centrifugation. The final crypt and villus cells are 95--99% viable by dye exclusion and exhibit 5--20% cross-contamination on the basis of differential marker enzymes. The isolated crypt and villus cells prepared by the new procedure are suitable for comparative studies of metabolic activity in the absence of chelation-induced structural and metabolic abnormalities.