PURE, VIABLE AND HUMAN EPITHELIAL CELL PREPARATIONS OBTAINED FROM DIGESTIVE TISSUE AND METHOD OF PREPARATION THEREOF

摘要

The basement membrane (BM) underlying the epitheliumof the intestine is generally believed to be of both epithelial andmesenchymalorigin but the exact contribution of each tissue has not been directlyexamined in the human. In this study, we have used a newly describedprocedure to dissociate the human intestine into pure epithelial andcorresponding mesenchymal fractions. Northern blot and RT-PCR analysesof the fractions for the presence of transcripts encoding extracellular matrixmolecules revealed that the epithelium produces the formal BM moleculessuch as the .alpha.1, .alpha.2, and .beta.1 chains of laminin-1 and laminin-2and the .alpha.5(IV)and .alpha.6(IV) chains of collagen as well as fibronectin, a BM- associatedmolecule. Interestingly, the .alpha.1 (IV) chain of collagen, which associateswiththe .alpha.2(IV) chain to form the main BM collagen network, as well astenascin-Cand decorin, two BM associated molecules, were found to be exclusively ofmesenchymal origin. Taken together, these data support the concept that inthe human, as in experimental animals, the intestinal BM is comprised ofcomponents produced from both the epithelium and the mesenchyme.