Stabilization of pre-epithelial mucus gel in cryostat sections from rat colon with celloidin.

Abstract

Gastrointestinal mucus occurs partly as a stable, translucent water-insoluble gel adherent to the mucosal surface, and partly in a water soluble form in the lumen (Allen and Carroll 1985). The adherent pre-epithelial mucus gel (PMG) has been shown in unfixed sections of rat stomach as a continuous layer of median thickness 80 μm (Kerss et al. 1982), and 145 μm (Sandzen et al. 1988), respectively.