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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 285/1/R162    most recent 00721.2001v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (5) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Nanthakumar, N. N. Articles by Walker, W. A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Nanthakumar, N. N. Articles by Walker, W. A.

DEVELOPMENT AND TISSUE PLASTICITY

Normal and glucocorticoid-induced development of the human small intestinal xenograft

¹Developmental Gastroenterology Laboratory, Combined Program in Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129

Submitted 3 December 2001 ; accepted in final form 17 January 2003

The aim of this study was to determine whether intestinal xenografts could recapitulate human in utero development by using disaccharidases as markers. Twenty-week-old fetal intestine was transplanted into immunocompromised mice and was followed. At 20-wk of gestation, the fetal human intestine was morphologically developed with high sucrase and trehalase but had low lactase activities. By 9-wk posttransplantation, jejunal xenografts were morphologically and functionally developed and were then monitored for ≤6 mo. Both sucrase and trehalase activities remained unchanged, but lactase activity increased in a manner similar to that described in in utero development. Changes in sucrase and lactase activities were paralleled by protein levels. Cortisone acetate treatment at 20-wk posttransplantation accelerated the ontogeny of lactase but did not alter sucrase and trehalase activities. Biopsies from 1- and 2-yr-old infant intestine showed that all activities, except trehalase in the proximal intestine, corresponded to the levels found in jejunal xenografts at 24 wk posttransplantation. These studies suggest that 20-wk-old fetal intestine has the extrauterine developmental potential to follow normal intrauterine ontogeny as a xenograft.

sucrase; lactase; trehalase; intestinal ontogeny; hormonal regulation

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