CELL REPLACEMENT AND CHANGING TRANSPORT FUNCTION IN NEONATAL PIG COLON

Measurements of intracellular methionine concentration in pig colon, following in vitro incubation in methionine containing medium, were carried out during the 1st 10 days of post-natal life. The new-born pig colon concentrates methionine within its mucosa. Autoradiography of 3H-labeled phenylalanine shows it to accumulate surface epithelial most in cells. The ability of the colonic mucosa to concentrate methionine disappears during the 1st few days of post-natal life. Radioactive thymidine, injected at birth, shows cell mitosis to be confined to the lower 3rd of each colonic crypt. Labeled cells later migrate out of the crypts on to the surface epithelium. The cell replacement time is 105 h. The time course for the fall in the ability of the pig colon to actively accumulate methionine corresponds to that predicted if cells synthesized from birth were unable to transport this amino acid. The ability of the new-born pig colon to transport amino acids, though transient, may be physiologically important. The nature of the signal which changes the physiological function of cells synthesized postnatally remains to be determined.