Small Bowel Enterocyte Culture and Transplantation

This text describes the intestinal cell interactions which regulate mucosal growth and response throughout life. Experimental work has led to the development of novel methods for isolation and culture of normal postnatal intestinal epithelium and for successful isolation and transplantation of this epithelium with restoration of the mucosal layer. The book decribes methods of colonic mucosal replacement by "seeded" small intestinal epithelium and the heterogeneous cellular events involved in the temporal sequence of mucosal morphogenesis after transplantation. It discusses studies of graft function and temporal changes of digestive enzyme expression, as well as future prospects of this work including application to human tissues.