Study of kinetics of epithelial cell populations in normal tissues of the rat's intestines and in carcinogenesis. III. Changes in kinetics of enterocyte populations in the course of experimental intestinal tumour induction in rats

Altered controls of proliferation in proximal small intestine of the senescent rat

The proximal small intestine responds to starvation by rapidly reducing crypt cell proliferation rate and villus cellularity and to resumption of food intake (refeeding) by abruptly increasing proliferation and the number of villus epithelial cells. We show that villus cellularity responds to starvation and refeeding similarly in young and aging animals. However, as compared to young animals, senescent rats showed increased basal DNA synthetic activity, starvation resulted in a smaller decrease in DNA labeling of crypt cells, and refeeding produced an abrupt broadening of the proliferative zone in older animals without concomitant increased numbers of villus cells. Such altered crypt proliferative responses resemble precancerous changes seen in the colon and the aberrant proliferation found in both small and large intestine after administration of the carcinogen dimethylhydrazine.

Demonstration of vincristine resistance in primary intestinal neoplasms in the rat by the 'post-metaphase index'

A method is described enabling the direct measurement of vincristine resistance in intact tissues in vivo by morphological study. Using the metaphase arresting properties of the drug, counts were made of escaping anaphase and telophase mitotic figures at a range of doses. The proportion of post-metaphase mitotic figures is called the post-metaphase index (PMI). In 95 primary intestinal tumours induced by dimethylhydrazine (DMH) in rats, an increase in resistance to vincristine was shown over normal mucosa (P less than 0.001). The data were analysed by computer modelling and a linear relationship is demonstrated between the logit of the post-metaphase index, and log dose of vincristine. To achieve a PMI of 1% the fitted lines show an enhanced vincristine dose requirement over normal mucosa of 6 times in colonic tumours, and 8 times in small intestinal tumours. Non-neoplastic mucosa from the DMH-treated animals requires an enhanced dose of vincristine of 1.5 times, compared with normal mucosa, to achieve a PMI of 1%. Given current interest in the mechanism of vincristine resistance in cell lines this new approach provides a technique for assessing the resistance of solid tumours, both in vivo and in vitro, and for subsequent experimental manipulation.