A COMMENTARY ON MORPHOLOGICAL AND QUANTITATIVE ASPECTS OF MICROPARTICLE TRANSLOCATION ACROSS THE GASTROINTESTINAL MUCOSA

It is now generally accepted that particulates in the nano-range (< 1 mu m) can and do cross the intestinal mucosa. However, the issue is less well resolved for particles in the micro-range (> 1 mu m) and this is discussed in relation to the variety of experimental designs present in the literature. Emphasis is placed on the relative contributions of quantitative bulk tissue analysis with respect to qualitative and quantitative morphological analysis. The discussion is extended to observations on factors influencing the particle translocation process including variation in particle uptake in relation to intestinal region and time post-dose adminstration based on data for uptake of similar to 2 mu m latex particles by rat Peyer's patch tissue. Although a significant body of data now identifies the intestinal processus of particle translocation it is underllined that discrepencies may arise as a consequence of different analytical approaches and that this is an issue to be addressed for valid comparisons of data.