Abstract
The treatment of intestinal injury induced by radiation is almost carried out by symptomatic therapy now. We try to develop a treatment method that reproduction of intestines by transplantation of embryonic stem (ES) cells for prevention against the intestinal injury. Intestines of mice (female ICR nu/nu) were irradiated at a single dose of 30 Gy. After irradiation, the mice were transplanted directly with ES cells (male 129/Sv) as a donor to the irradiated intestines. On day 13 to 27 after transplantation, the intestine was removed. To confirm the proliferation and differentiation of ES cells, we determined the Y-chromosome DNA of ES cells by PCR and observed the intestine by histology (H.E.) and immunohistochemistry (SSEA1, bFGF, αSMA, cytokeratin AE1/AE3). The results showed that the cells of donor origin were identified in the intestine of irradiated mice. The transplanted ES cells could proliferate and differentiate in the intestinal tissue that injured by radiation. On day 13 after transplantation, the crypt-like cells were observed, but they are not epithelial cells. Interestingly, we observed that ES cells differentiated into epithelial cells in other area. On day 27, the transplanted ES cells differentiated into various cell types including teratoma. It may be necessary to differentiate the ES cells to epithelial cells in vitro before transplantation, or differentiate transplanted ES cells to crypt cells in vivo.
