Abstract

Studies of the cell kinetics of the colonic crypts could explain the morphogenesis of colonic adenomas and results suggest that a derangement of the proliferative zone of the colonic crypts takes place before adenoma development. This study was conducted to determine whether this is the case or not. The labelling distribution and labelling index (LI) of the colonic crypts was examined with ex vivo autoradiography. Eight patients with intestinal neoplasms, three with familial polyposis coli, four with ordinary colon cancer, and one with two colonic adenomas. Similar labelling distributions and absent upward shift of the active proliferative zone in crypts were observed in patients with familial polyposis and in those with non-polyposis cancer, or adenomas. The non-proliferative zone of the crypts was well preserved in all eight patients. The mean of the labelling index of the three patients with familial polyposis coli was 8.35% (3.17), values expressed as means (SD) and that of the five patients with non-polyposis cancer, or adenomas was 8.55% (3.20). None of the eight patients showed derangement of the proliferative zone of colonic crypts. This result is compatible with the hypothesis that adenomas are detected first as 'buds of adenomas', which sprout into the lamina propria mucosae in the middle part of normal crypts.