Organ culture of fetal rat small intestine for testing gluten toxicity: a reappraisal.

Jejunal segments from fetal rats of 18 days gestation were maintained in an organ culture system for up to 72 h. During this period, villi developed within the intestinal lumen and the epithelium changed from stratified to simple columnar. Peristaltic activity was observed during in-vitro culture. Alkaline phosphatase specific activity of the bowel segments fell after 48 hours culture, compared with pre-culture values (P less than 0.05), but that of alpha-glucosidase increased. The addition of Frazer's gluten fraction III to the culture medium caused slowing in the rate of morphological maturation of the jejunal explants, but there was no additional effect on enzyme specific activities compared with segments cultured in gluten-free medium. The place of organ culture of fetal rat intestine as an animal model for testing cereal toxicity in the study of coeliac disease remains unclear.