J.Jpn. Surg. Soc.. 56(12): 1588-1606, 1956

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A STUDY ON THE CULTURE OF GASTRIC AND INTESTINAL EPITHELIAL CELLS

The alimental tract is predisposed in some definite parts for ulceration. The author, taking the fact to be ascribable to the existence of some biological local disposition in the walls of the tract, cultured by the hanging-drop method the tissue of the jejunum as well as those of the fundic and pyloric glandular areas of the stomach obtained from rabbit fetuses on the 25th or 26th day of fetal life and studied the general growth of epithelial cells in the tissues under culture and the relation between the tissue growth and the hydrogen-ion concentration of the medium used. The following is a brief description of the results obtained.
1) The growth of epithelial cells was started, as a rule, in 18-20 hours in the tissues of the fundic and pyloric glandular areas and in jejunal tissue.
2) The medium became more completely liquefied when the epithelium cultured in it was that of the intestine than when it was that of the stomach.
3) The epithelial strands and wide membrane were formed in the two different tissues of the stomach, whereas epithelial membrane was formed very rarely, and that formed very narrow, in jejunal tissue.
4) Comparative morphological examination showed no substantial difference between the tissues of the fundic and pyloric glandular areas of the stomach.
5) Fibroblasts were outstripped in the rate of growth by epithelial cells in the gastric and in testinal tissues under culture.
6) The optimal hydrogen-ion concentration of the medium was pH 7.0-7.2 for the growth of epithelial cells of the fundic and pyloric glandular areas and pH 7.2-7.4 for that of those in jejunal tissue.
7) PH 7.6 was optimal for the growth of fibroblasts.
8) Statistic test disclosed that, 5% taken as the level of significance, there was a significant difference in the number of grown-up tissue fragments between the three different tissues according as the medium used was acidic or alkaline. The epithelial cells of the fundic glandular area were more acid- tolerant than those of the pyloric area and the jejunum and reversely those of the jejunum, the pyloric glandular area and the fundic glandular area were alkali-tolerant in declining order.
The existence of certain physiological local differences in the mucosa of the alimental tract was confirmed at the Tomoda Surgical Clinic by the measurement of potential difference across the mucosa and isoelectric points of the epithelium of the mucosa and by a chemical study of the proteins contained in the walls of the alimental tract. The author's comparative study of the general growth of gastric and intestinal tissues under culture and the relation between the growth of those tissues and the hydrogen- ion concentration of the medium used for their culture resulted in confirming the presence of biological local difference in the epithelial cells of those tissues.
(author's abstract)

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