Summary
We have previously described ways to use the mesentery for studies of proliferation in intact tissue. Here we have studied a weak and a strong mitogenic response in the mesentery of rats aged 6-42 weeks, induced by a single intraperitoneal injection of saline or the mast-cell-degranulating drug 48/80. Proliferation was measured by the specific DNA activity, the fraction of fibroblast- and mesothelial-like cells in the S + G2 cell-cyclephases, and the mitotic index. We also counted the relative number of mast cells in the tissue (normalized to 5,000 fibroblast-like and mesotheliallike cells), since this might influence 48/80-induced mast-cell-mediated proliferation.
In old animals there was a decline in the proliferative response and the time required to initiate DNA synthesis was prolonged. This appears to be the first report of such an age-dependent proliferation characteristic in the mesentery, and probably in any connective tissue. The normalized number of mast cells in the mesentery also declined with increasing age.
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Supported by the Swedish Medical Research Council, Project No. 12X-05942
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Norrby, K., Bergström, S. & Druvefors, P. Age-dependent mitogenesis in normal connective tissue cells. Virchows Archiv B Cell Pathol 36, 27–34 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02912051
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02912051