Cell kinetic studies in murine ventral tongue epithelium: cell cycle progression studies using double labelling techniques

The dorsal and ventral epithelia on the murine tongue exhibit very pronounced circadian rhythms in terms of the cell cycle. These rhythms are such that three injections of tritiated thymidine 3 h apart spanning the circadian peak in S phase cells labelled between 40 and 50% of the basal cells. Injection of bromodeoxyuridine generally gave slightly lower labelling indices. Approximately the same proportion (54% of the basal cells) could be accumulated in metaphase over a 24-h period using vincristine as a stathmokinetic agent. The experiments reported here using mouse ventral tongue epithelium use double-labelling approaches to address the question: what proportion of the approximately 50% of the basal cells that are proliferating have a 24-h cell cycle and can therefore be labelled by a similar labelling protocol the following day? The results suggest a heterogeneity amongst the proliferating basal cells, similar to the heterogeneity proposed for the dorsal tongue epithelium. Although not all the basal component has been accounted for, the data presented here suggest that about 20% of the basal cells may. have a cell cycle time of 24 h, about 30% appear to have a longer cell cycle time (48 or 72 h), while about 20% of the basal cells appear to be postmitotic maturing G(1) cells, awaiting the appropriate signals for migration into the suprabasal layer.