Objective: To investigate the dynamic changes of intestinal epithelial stem cells during the injured-repaired progress induced by 5-FU.
Methods: Fifty adult C57BL/6J mice were enrolled in this study, 40 of them were intraperitoneally injected with 5-FU (30 mg per kg of body weigh) for five days, and 10 of them intraperitoneally injected with PBS as control. At day 1, 3, 5, 7 after treatment, the mice were killed and middle intestine was taken. Pathology was examined by HE staining. Musashi-1 (msi-1) expression was detected by immunohistochemical technique. The percentage of Rho low staining cells was detected by flow cytometry.
Results: After treatment with 5-FU, the intestinal mucosa was damaged. The Rho low staining cells were increasing, and at day 1 after treatment, the percentage of Rho low staining cells reached the highest level (P<0.01). The number of cells expressing msi-1 did not change significantly (P>0.05), but the percentage of positive msi-1 cells increased significantly (P<0.01). There was positive correlation between the percentage of Rhodamine 123 low staining cells and positive msi-1 cells in each group (r=0.867, P<0.01).
Conclusions: The Rho low staining cells may contain rich intestinal epithelial stem cells. The intestinal epithelial stem cells expressing msi-1 can regenerate the damage of intestinal mucosa induced by 5-FU.