SPECIES-DIFFERENCES IN THE PROCESS OF APOPTOSIS IN EPITHELIAL-CELLS OF THE SMALL-INTESTINE - AN ULTRASTRUCTURAL AND CYTOCHEMICAL STUDY OF LUMINAL CELL ELEMENTS

Our previous study demonstrated that in the small intestine of guinea pigs, apoptotic epithelial cells at the villus tips were phagocytosed by lamina propria macrophages, leaving only apical cytoplasmic plates, which thereafter were domed and extruded into the lumen. This finding contrasts with the generally accepted view that effete epithelial cells are simply exfoliated into the lumen. In order to explain this discrepancy, the present study examined luminal cell elements of the small intestine in the guinea pig, rat and mouse; the latter two have been favored species for studying the kinetics of intestinal cells. Light and electron microscopic observations indicated that the luminal fluid of the guinea pig contained numerous cytoplasmic fragments covered with long microvilli and not containing a nucleus; these fragments corresponded with the apical cytoplasm of apoptotic epithelial cells. In the rat and mouse, in contrast, luminal cell elements were represented by round cell bodies possessing a nucleus and microvillous border; the nucleus displayed compaction and segregation of chromatin at the periphery, a microscopic figure characteristic of apoptosis. As far as the rat and mouse are concerned, the present findings support the accepted view that epithelial cells undergoing apoptosis are exfoliated as total, nucleus-containing cells. In the guinea pig, in contrast, only an apical thin plate of effete cells is shed off, as our previous studies have suggested.