Metaplasia produced in cultures of chick ectoderm by high vitamin A / by Honor B. Fell and E. Mellanby.

  • Fell, Honor B.
Date:
[1953?]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Metaplasia produced in cultures of chick ectoderm by high vitamin A / by Honor B. Fell and E. Mellanby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [Reprinted from the Journal of Physiology, 1953, Yol. 119, No. 4, p. 470.] PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN J. Physiol. (1953) H9> 47°~488 METAPLASIA PRODUCED IN CULTURES OF CHICK ECTODERM BY HIGH VITAMIN A By HONOR B. FELL* and E. MELLANBY From the Strangeways Research Laboratory, Cambridge, and the Nutrition Building, National Institute for Medical Research, London, A. IF. 7 (Received 15 September 1952) One of the earliest discoveries concerning vitamin A was that a deficiency of this substance affected the epithelium of the eye and caused keratomalacia and xerophthalmia. Mori (1922 a, b, 1923) extended this observation by examining the paraocular glands and other tissues of A-deficient rats and found that the epithelium of the ducts of these glands and of the larynx and trachea underwent metaplastic changes and became keratinizing stratified epithelium. Wolbach & Howe (1925) confirmed the results of Mori in rats, and in guinea-pigs (1928), and found that in vitamin A deficiency, stratified keratinizing epithelium replaced normal epithelium in the respiratory tract, genito-urinary tract, salivary glands, the paraocular glands and the pancreatic ducts. In this work they gave a detailed account of the histo-pathology of the metaplastic changes. In 1933 they followed up this investigation by describing the reparative histological changes which accompany the replacement of the keratinizing epithelium by epithelium normal to the position when vitamin A is added to the vitamin-deficient diet of rats. More directly related to the present work is the effect of abnormally high concentrations of vitamin A on skin epithelium as described recently by Studer & Frey (1949) and by Sabella, Bern & Kahn (1951). Studer & Frey gave massive doses (40,000 i.u.) daily by mouth to rats, and produced a thickening of the epidermis especially of the stratum granulosum. The normally flattened cells of the stratum germinativum also proliferated and became cubical, and other striking epidermal changes were noted. After about 12 days, the epithelium began to revert to its normal state and the reversion was complete in 21 days although the same treatment was continued. Sabella et ah applied vitamin A alcohol in sesame oil (in concentration 5000 i.u./ml.) directly to the skin of rats; 10 days of this treatment caused local thickening of the * Foulerton Research Fellow.
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