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Fine structure and enzyme histochemistry of developing duodenal epithelium of the chicken

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Summary

The histochemical activity of alkaline (AlPh) and acid phosphatases (AcPh), adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase), monoamine oxidase (MAO), succinic (SDH), isocitric (ICDH), glucose-6-phosphate (G6PDH) and lactic (LDH) dehydrogenase and leucinamino-peptidase (LAP) was studied in the duodenal wall of the chicken during pre- and postnatal growth. The morphogenesis of the developing epithelium was studied by electron microscopy.

In 8-day-old embryos weak activity of all the enzymes but AlPh was observed in the cytoplasm of the epithelial cells of the mucosa. During the last third of the prenatal growing period the activity of AlPh, ATPase, MAO, SDH, ICDH, G6PDH and LAP increased strongly in the epithelium. In the adult chickens the epithelium exhibited strong activity of all the enzymes studied but LAP, the activity of which was moderate. The most intense activity of AlPh, AcPh, MAO and LAP was located in the cytoplasmic region adjacent to the bowel lumen, i. e. the microvillous and terminal web area of the epithelial cells.

By electron microscopy, and inactive phase in the development of the epithelial microvilli was seen from the 10th to the 16th incubation day, followed by slow (16th–19th) and rapid (at about the time of birth) growing phases. The differentiation and the growth of the microvilli occurred at about the same time as the appearance of the enzymes in the apical cytoplasmic region of the epithelial cells. During the last third of the prenatal life the volume of the epithelial cells increased greatly, as did the number of mitochondria, lysosomes, vesicles and saccules of the Golgi apparatus. The crypt cells and the villus epithelial cells did not show similar morphological and enzymatic characteristics. The fine structure of the crypt cells resembled that of the non-differentiated embryonic epithelial cells of the duodenal mucosa.

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  1. Department of Anatomy, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Antti Penttilä & Johan Gripenberg

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  1. Antti Penttilä
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  2. Johan Gripenberg
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This work was supported by grants from the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation and from the State Medical Research Council of Finland.

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Penttilä, A., Gripenberg, J. Fine structure and enzyme histochemistry of developing duodenal epithelium of the chicken. Z. Anat. Entwickl. Gesch. 129, 109–127 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00522241

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