Cell proliferation in the human gallbladder epithelium: effect of distension.

Abstract

SUMMARY DNA synthesis activity in the epithelium of the human gallbladder was studied through in vitro labelling of mucosal specimens with 3H-thymidine and autoradiography. The specimens were taken at the time of a surgical operation. Eight 'normal' gallbladders and six distended gallbladders from patients with carcinomatous obstruction of the common bile duct were examined. Proliferative activity was very low in the normal and significantly higher in the distended gallbladders.The use of labelled precursors of DNA and of autoradiography has allowed the study of cell proliferation in the gallbladder of experimental animals. Recent studies have reported an increased incorporation of 3H-thymidine in the epithelium of the gallbladder after ligation of the common bile duct (Scott, 1974) and during administration of lincomycin (Scott, 1976) or of a lithogenic diet (Scott, 1978) to rodents. The study of cell renewal in the normal human gallbladder has not been undertaken because ethical considerations stood in the way of injecting patients with tritiated thymidine. However, the in vitro labelling of surgical specimens with tritiated thymidine makes it possible to observe and to count the cells in DNA synthesis in biopsy specimens without previous injection of radiolabelled compounds (Willems et al., 1970). This method was recently applied to human gallbladders and permitted the observation that epithelial cell proliferation in this organ is significantly increased in patients with gall stones (Putz and Willems, 1978).In the present work, in vitro labelling was used for observing the changes in proliferative activity in the human gallbladder under the effect of distension. Adequate conditions for this study in man were found in surgical patients with complete obstruction of the distal bile duct by a malignant tumour. Methods SPECIMENSThe gallbladders from five patients with a cancer of the head of the pancreas and one patient with a Received for publication 9 October 1978 malignant ampulloma were used for this study. Obstructive jaundice and an increasingly distended gallbladder were observed in all patients. The patency of the cystic duct and the complete obstruction of the distal choledocus were verified by preoperative cholangiography. Five of the patients underwent a palliative cholecystoduodenostomy, and a 1 x 0(5 cm piece of the gallbladder wall was excised by the surgeon at the site of the future anastomosis. In one patient a cholecystectomy and a duodenopancreatectomy were performed; a similar piece of the gallbladder wall was taken in this case immediately after the cholecystectomy was done.Eight human gallbladders that were considered to be 'normal' by the surgeon (one of us) were taken as controls; three of them were resected during right hepatectomies, one was taken within three minutes after death in a patient with a ruptured abdominal aneurysm and four came from decerebrated donors of kidney grafts and were excised immediately after bilateral nephrectomy. All these gallbladders were flaccid at the time of...

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