[Assessment of cell losses in the intestinal epithelium]

An attempt was made of quantitative evaluation of the epithelial cell separation in vitro from the descending colon of mice (strains A, BALB/C, CBA, C57Bl and random-bred mice) under unified procedure of the tissue desintegration in norm and under carcinogenesis, depending on the age and strain distinctions. The devised method of forced cell isolation enable us to separate single, differentiated enterocytes, being in the stage of desquamation, from intestinal mucose. The cell separation was shown to decrease with age. The BALC/C mice, with high frequency of 1,2-dimethylhydrasine-induced tumor appearance, were characterized by a more decreased cell separation than C57Bl mice, with low sensitivity to the carcinogen. The cell separation from tumor-free mucosal surface in mice with tumors in colon was also seen decreased, as compared with control animals. The data obtained show that the reported approach of forced cell isolation can be useful for the appraisal of cell loss in the intestine, and suggest that the cell loss is decreasing during cancerogenesis.