Cell proliferation in the descending colon of dimethylhydrazine treated rats and in dimethylhydrazine induced adenocarcinomata.

A stathmokinetic technique which has estimable precision has been used to estimate mitotic rates in the crypts of Lieberkühn in the descending colon of normal, and of dimethylhydrazine (DMH)-treated rats, as well as in DMH-induced adenocarcinomata. Estimates of the mean number of proliferating and of non-proliferating cells per crypt of Lieberkühn were also made in normal and in DMH-treated rats. In normal rats, epithelial cell proliferation was found to be relatively slow in the basal one-fifth of the crypts of Lieberkühn and to be most rapid in the second one-fifth of the crypt. In DMH-treated rats the number of cells around the circumference of transversely sectioned crypts was significantly increased, as was the number of proliferating cells present in longitudinally sectioned crypts. The region of relatively slow cell proliferation in the base of the crypts was expanded to occupy the lower two-fifths of the crypt in DMH-treated rats whilst the region of most rapid cell proliferation was displaced upwards to occupy the third one-fifth of the crypt. In DMH-induced adenocarcinomata cell proliferation occurred at a rate similar to that in the relatively quiescent zone at the bases of the colinic crypts in normal animals. However, tumour cell proliferation was substantially slower than that in the second one-fifth of the crypt in normal animals.