Methods of organ culture for human bronchus.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to L A Barrett.
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Areas of hyperplasia were produced in hamster tracheal epithelium maintained in vitro by exposure to a suspension of benzo[a]pyrene (BP) in gelatin. Typical and atypical epiodermoid metaplasia were seen by 2 weeks. In atypical areas, cell nuclei were enlarged with prominent nucleoli, the cytoplasm contained dense bundles of tonofilaments and the cells were joined by numerous desmosomes. The peak response to the carcinogen was reached 4 weeks after the application of BP and consisted of extensive atypical epidermoid metaplasia. Tracheas treated with gelatin alone maintained a columnar epithelium for 6 weeks of culture. The characteristics of the metaplastic changes in vitro are essentially identical to those described after exposure of the hamster tracheobronchial epithelium to benzo[a]pyrene-ferric oxide in vivo.
Segments of human thoracic aorta were maintained in long-term explant culture for 18 weeks in serum-supplemented medium. The aortas were grossly normal in appearance, and random samples fixed for light microscopy prior to culture revealed a normal morphology. The intima contained no more than five layers of smooth muscle cells. After 7 days in culture, the intima was noticeably thicker than the uncultured segments. The increased thickness was due to proliferating smooth muscle cells and production of extracellular material. After several months in culture, extracellular material consisting of collagen and flocculent material was present in areas resembling atherosclerotic fibrous plaques. A peripheral growth, which formed around the explant, was composed of fibroblastlike cells and added to the overall thickness of the intima. However, aortic segment maintained for up to 2 months in serum-free culture medium showed no cellular proliferation. This study demonstrates that changes resembling early stages of atherosclerosis occur in human aortas maintained in explant culture using routine culture procedures.
An explant culture system has been developed for the long-term maintenance of colonic tissue from the rat. Explants of 1 cm2 in size were placed in tissue-culture dishes to which was added 2 ml of CMRL-1066 medium supplemented with glucose, hydrocortisone, beta-retinyl acetate, and either 2.5% bovine albumin or 5% fetal bovine serum. The dishes were placed in a controlled-atmosphere chamber which was gassed with 95% O2 and 5% CO2. The chamber then was placed on a rocker platform which rocked at 10 cycles per min causing the medium to flow intermittently over the epithelial surface. The explants were incubated at 30 degrees C. The viability of the tissue was measured both by incorporation of specific precursors into cellular macromolecules and by monitoring of tissue morphology with light and electron microscopy. Cultured rat colon was able to metabolize benzo[alpha]pyrene, 7,12-dimethylbenz[alpha]anthracene, aflatoxin B1, dimethylnitrosamine, 1,2-dimethylhydrazine, and methylazoxymethanol acetate into chemical species that bind to cellular DNA and protein.
Colon explants from adult rats were maintained in culture for over 3 months in our laboratories with good epithelial preservation and cellular differentiation. The light and transmission electron microscopic features of rat colon mucosa during the culture period are described. In all the explants that remained viable, there was an initial phase of degeneration of the surface and crypt cells, later these areas were repopulated in one week, showing well-formed crypts, goblet cells, and ultrastructural features such as extensive lateral interdigitations, microvilli and glycocalyx--typical of colon. The effect of in vivo carcinogen pretreatment was also studied. The explant culture from control untreated animals showed good epithelial differentiation with crypts until 6 weeks. In contrast, the explants from animals pretreated with 4 weekly doses of azoxymethane consistently showed epithelial differentiation with well-formed crypts up to 13 weeks.
Six morphologic cell types comprise the human bronchial epithelium: basal cells that do not reach the bronchial lumen, neurosecretory cells (Kulchitsky's cells, K-cells, or small granule cells) that rarely reach the lumen, and indifferent cells, mucous cells [small mucous granule cells (SMGC) and mucous goblet cells], ciliated cells, and ciliated-mucous cells that do reach the lumen. Ciliated-mucous cells bearing fully developed cilia and containing mucous granules are seen only occasionally. Three of the cell types that reach the lumen are microvillus covered and do not bear cilia. The microvillus-covered nonciliated cells are: 1) neurosecretory cells, 2) indifferent cells, and 3) mucous cells. Neurosecretory cells contain characteristic dense core granules. Such cells rarely reach the lumen. Indifferent cells are rarely seen. They have a pale cytoplasm and show no evidence of either ciliary or mucous differentiation. Similar cells are observed showing early signs of either ciliary or mucous differentiation or even both types of differentiation in the same cell. Mucous cells comprise the vast majority of microvillus-covered cells. They present either as SMGC with a few small mucous granules or as goblet cells, filled with mucus. These columnar cells are characterized ultrastructurally by dense cytoplasm and a well-developed endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus. The microvilli are coated with a glycocalyx that binds colloidal iron more avidly than that of either cilia or microvilli of ciliated cells. Possible interrelationships between the different cell types in normal epithelium are discussed.
The histogenesis of epidermoid metaplasia and carcinoma in situ was analyzed in human bronchial epithelium. The conclusion is that epidermoid metaplasia and carcinoma in situ can result from conversion of mucous cells. This implies the direct transformation of one type of fully differentiated cell to another. The study therefore emphasizes the differentiation potentialities of the mucous cells that can divide and undergo goblet cell hyperplasia and epidermoid metaplasia. Epidermoid metaplasia is a common reaction to injury in the bronchus. In our series of cases it was especially frequent in patients without neoplastic disease who had undergone intratracheal intubation or tracheostomy and who had been maintained on a respirator in the Shock Trauma Unit, University of Maryland. Future studies will be required to distinguish the difference, if any, between epidermoid metaplasia destined to become malignant carcinoma and that which is not. One difference noted in this study was the absence of overt cornification in epidermoid metaplasia in patients without neoplastic disease.
Human colonic epithelium has been cultured as explants in a chemically defined medium for periods of 1 to 20 days. The viability of the explants was shown by the preservation of the ultrastructural features of the colonic epithelial cells and by active incorporation of radioactive precursors into cellular DNA and protein. A progressive decrease in the number of goblet cells, decrease in the depth of the crypts, and a change from a columnar to a cuboidal epithelium were observed. After 20 days in culture the colonic mucosa consisted of a single layer of cuboidal epithelial cells and a few glands. The ability to maintain colonic mucosa in culture was subject to both intra- and interindividual variation. Cultured human colonic mucosa also activated a chemical procarcinogen, benzo[a]pyrene, into metabolites which bound to cellular DNA. A 100-fold interindividual variation in this binding was observed.
Hamster tracheal epithelium survived 3 hours of total ischemia at 37 degrees C as demonstrated by its ability to be maintained in organ culture for 7 days subsequent to the ischemic episode. Epithelium ischemic for longer periods did not survive in culture. Human bronchial epithelium obtained from surgically resected lungs showed the acute effects of ischemia, i.e., the cells had dilated endoplasmic reticulum and swollen mitochondria. These cellular effects of ischemia were, however, reversed by placing the bronchus in explant culture. Bronchus obtained at autopsy, 2 to 3 hours following death, showed epithelial cells suffering severe ischemic cell injury, most of which did not survive in culture, but in some cases, a few basal cells survived to form a non-keratinizing squamous epithelium.
Bovine and human pancreatic ductal explants were maintained in long-term culture. Bovine ducts were cultured for 85 days, whereas human ducts have been cultured for up to 60 days. The explants all maintained good ultrastructural preservation for these periods and also incorporated radioactive precursors into protein, RNA, and DNA. Uncultured ducts, which were fixed for electron micrsoscopic study, demonstrated classical signs of reversible cell injury (dilated endoplasmic reticulum and swollen mitochondria), and cultured explants did not. However, the cultured tissues did show sublethal alterations such as the formation of numerous autophagic vacuoles and residual bodies and the accumulation of large lipid droplets. This study demonstrated the feasibility of maintaining pancreatic ducts in long-term explant culture, which enables them to be used in experimental studies involving chemical carcinogens and in structural and functional studies.
A method is described in which free cells were dehydrated in suspension, put one double-coated tape attached to a specimen stub and dried from CO2. The method provides a simple, fast means of handling free cells when using the critical point method of drying.
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The binding of benzo[a]pyrene to DNA in cultured human bronchus was measured in specimens from 37 patients. The binding values ranged from 2 to 151 picomoles of benzo[a]pyrene per milligram of DNA with an overall mean +/- standard error of 34.2 +/- 5.2. This 75-fold interindividual variation in the binding of benzo[a]pyrene to DNA is similar in magnitude to that found in pharmacogenetic studies of drug metabolism. Aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase is also inducible by benz[a]anthracene in the bronchial mucosa.
Human bronchial epithelium has been maintained in organ culture in serum-supplemented medium for 4 months. After 4 to 6 weeks in culture, various changes in morphology were apparent. There was an increase in autophagic vacuoles in mucous, ciliated, and basal cells, a reduction in the height of the columnar cells, a decrease in the number of goblet mucous cells, and an increase in cells with small mucous granules. After 3 months in culture, the basal lamina was frequently covered by 2 or 3 layers of epithelial cells consisting of nonkeratinizing squamous cells with short microvilli and small mucous granules. Less frequently, keratinizing squamous cells were seen. Differentiated epithelium incorporated precursors into macromolecules in serum-free medium, supplemented with vitamin A, at 1 week of culture. These explants exhibited changed epithelium by 2 weeks, similar to that described for epithelium in serum-supplemented medium after 4 to 6 weeks.
The studies reported here demonstrate some of the factors affecting the binding of benzo(a)pyrene (BP) to macromolecules in cultured human bronchial mucosa. Bronchial specimens were obtained at either surgy or "immediate" autopsy from patients with and without lung cancer. Grossly normal-appearing pieces of bronchus were cultured in a chemically defined medium, i.e., CMRL 1066 medium containing 1 mug insulin per ml, 0.1 mug beta-retinyl acetate per ml,, 0.1 mug hydrocortisone hemisuccinate per ml, 2 mM L-glutamine, 100 units penicillin G per ml, and 100 mug streptomycin per ml. After 7 days, explant cultures were exposed to [3H]BP, usually for 24 hr, and then binding to total cellular macromolecules was studied by autoradiography, and binding to DNA was measured following isolation of DNA from bronchial mucosal cells. The extent of binding of [3H]BP was dependent on dose of BP, length of exposure to [3H]BP, and temperature. By autoradiography, bronchial epithelial cells bound more [3H]BP than stromal fibroblasts. Both 7,8-benzoflavone and butylated hydroxytoluene appeared to reduce the level of [3H]BP bound to DNA, while nicotine apparently did not alter the level of binding. These studies demonstrate that the bronchial mucosa, an important human cancer target tissue, has the capability to form metabolites of BP which bind to macromolecules including DNA. In addition, 7,8-benzoflavone and butylated hydroxytoluene, both known to alter the microsomal metabolism of BP, reduce the level of [3H]BP bound to DNA.
Small granule cells are described in the segmental bronchi of adult humans. Rarely, these cells were seen abutting the lumen of the airway. A luminal location has been described for these cells in the bronchial epithelium of human fetuses and neonates and it is suggested that luminal small granule cells may be a rare, although normal component of the adult human bronchial epithelium. The dense core granules of the small granule cells stained intensely with phosphotungstic and at low pH suggesting that they contain glycoprotein. Granules present in a carcinoid and an oat cell tumor stained similarly. The role of the small granule cell in the genesis of bronchial carcinoid and oat cell tumors is recognized.
Abnormal cilia are a common occurrence in human bronchial epithelium. Bronchial specimens were obtained at surgery or at "immediate autopsy" from patients with neoplastic and nonneoplastic diseases; these patients included smokers and one known nonsmoker. Areas of bronchial epithelium far removed from the tumor mass were studied. Ciliary abnormalities fell into four major categories: (1) cilia with a single axoneme and excess cytoplasmic matrix; (2) compound cilia; (3) intracytoplasmic microtubular doublets; and (4) cilia within periciliary sheaths.
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