CONTINUOUS LABELLING STUDIES ON MOUSE SKIN AND INTESTINE

Data are presented for changes in absolute radioactivity levels and labelling indices (LI) in three tissues: jejunum, colon and dorsal skin in the mouse during conditions of repeated (every 3 hr for 168 hr) ³H-TdR (5 μCi) injections. The lengths of S and the cell cycle were estimated. The crypt and mucosal transit times were evaluated. There is a slowly cycling subpopulation in the crypt which may be the goblet cell precursors or a crypt stem cell population. The skin LI data cannot be fitted by a single straight line and the procedure of continuously handling or injecting the animals appears to result in a disturbance of the steady state. The liquid scintillation data for all samples showed some consistent and surprisingly large fluctuations and a clear deviation from linear uptake with increasing time.