Explant culture of rat esophagus in a chemically defined medium.

Esophagus from adult male CDF rats was cultured for a period of 28 d in CMRL-1066 medium supplemented with pyruvic acid, HEPES buffer, beta-retinyl acetate, and antibiotics. Morphological, radioautographic, and biochemical studies indicated that the survival of the tissue in serum-free medium was equivalent to that in medium containing 5% heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum. There was a relatively constant uptake of [3H]thymidine into DNA and [3H]leucine into protein of the esophageal explants during the incubation. Only the basal cells of the epithelium incorporated [3H]thymidine into their nuclei. The normal morphology of the tissue was preserved when the explants were maintained at both 37 and 30 degrees C, and in either 50 or 20 % 02. Ninety-five percent O2 was highly toxic to the cells of the explants. This culture system should be suitable for a variety of investigations in esophageal cell differentiation and carcinogenesis.