title: Reconstitution of stratified murine and human oesophageal epithelia in an in vivo transplant culture system.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The molecular and cellular events responsible for regulating development of the oesophageal epithelium are not well understood. At least in part, this is due to the lack of a suitable model system with which to study the process. Here, we report development of a manipulable in vivo transplant model for mouse or human oesophageal epithelium.
  
  
  METHODS
  Epithelial cells were isolated from mouse or human oesophagus and inoculated into de-epithelialized and devitalized rat tracheas. The rat trachea, containing cells, was placed subcutaneously under the dorsal skin of immunodeficient mice.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We show that a multilayered stratified squamous epithelium can be generated in 4-6 weeks from as few as 5 x 10(4) isolated oesophageal epithelial cells. The reconstituted epithelium recapitulates many of the structural and histological features of the normal oesophageal epithelium, including a basal layer of cuboidal-like cells, suprabasal layers of differentiating squamous cells and, in the case of murine cells, a superficial layer of cornified material.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our model can be used to generate a multilayered normal murine or human epithelium from a single cell suspension of oesophageal epithelial cells. The ability to genetically manipulate the cells prior to growth in the model is a powerful tool with which to study the molecular mechanisms involved in the development of normal oesophagus or in pathogenic processes such as Barrett's metaplasia or tumorigenesis.
authors.affiliation: Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Surgical Oncology Research Laboratory, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Croagh
authors.forename: Shuli
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Anjali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tikoo
authors.forename: Sanjay
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nandurkar
authors.forename: Robert J S
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Pritinder
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kaur
authors.forename: Wayne A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Phillips
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D004848:Epithelium / Q000637:transplantation; D004947:Esophagus / Q000166:cytology*; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008954:Models, Biological; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley