Varying doses of colchicine have been administered intraperitoneally to cats and dogs in order to study histologically the reactions in the epithelium of the small intestine. In normal animals of both species, approximately 1 % of the total number of epithelial cells in the ileum are in mitosis at a given time. After exposure to colchicine for 5 h, the maximum number of arrested mitoses in the cat was found to be 3—77%; in the dog the maximum number rose to 17—12%. The results indicate that in the epithelial cells of the dog’s small intestine, colchicine not only arrests mitosis in meta-phase, but also stimulates the cells to enter mitosis.

Copyright © 1958 The Company of Biologists Ltd.
1958
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