An ultrastructural study on the "meconium corpuscles" in rat foetal intestinal epithelium with particular reference to apoptosis.

During the embryonic development of the intestine, programmed deletion of epithelial cells plays a vital role in the formation of secondary lumina and of villi. Electron microscopy shows that this deletion is effected by apoptosis, a distinctive mode of cellular death recently recognised as being implicated in normal tissue involution in the adult, as well as during intrauterine development. The process involves cellular condensation and budding to form membrane-bounded apoptotic bodies containing well-preserved organelles. These are then either engulfed by neighbouring principal cells or sloughed off into the intestinal lumen. Engulfed apoptotic bodies that show various degrees of lysosomal degradation have previously been referred to as "meconium corpuscles".