N. Perreault et al., EPITHELIAL VS MESENCHYMAL CONTRIBUTION TO THE EXTRACELLULAR-MATRIX INTHE HUMAN INTESTINE, Biochemical and biophysical research communications (Print), 248(1), 1998, pp. 121-126
The basement membrane (BM) underlying the epithelium of the intestine
is generally believed to be of both epithelial and mesenchymal origin
but the exact contribution of each tissue has not been directly examin
ed in the human. In this study, we have used a newly described procedu
re to dissociate the human intestine into pure epithelial and correspo
nding mesenchymal fractions. Northern blot and RT-PCR analyses of the
fractions for the presence of transcripts encoding extracellular matri
x molecules revealed that the epithelium produces the formal BM molecu
les such as the alpha 1, alpha 2, and beta 1 chains of laminin-1 and l
aminin-2 and the alpha 5(IV) and alpha 6(IV) chains of collagen as wel
l as fibronectin, a BM-associated molecule. Interestingly, the alpha 1
(IV) chain of collagen, which associates with the alpha 2(IV) chain to
form the main BM collagen network, as well as tenascin-C and decorin,
two BM-associated molecules, was found to be exclusively of mesenchym
al origin. Taken together, these data support the concept that in the
human, as in experimental animals, the intestinal BM is composed of co
mponents produced from both the epithelium and the mesenchyme. (C) 199
8 Academic Press.