Bickenbach J R, McCutecheon J, Mackenzie I C
Cell Tissue Kinet. 1986 May;19(3):325-33. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2184.1986.tb00684.x.
A subpopulation of epithelial cells which retains a tritiated thymidine label (termed label-retaining cells, LRCs) has been previously demonstrated in skin and oral mucosae of mice and hamsters. To examine the rate of decrease in the number of LRCs and the changes in degree of labelling, young mice were labelled with tritiated thymidine and the rate at which label was diluted from basal keratinocytes assessed for up to 90 days. The number of LRCs in each tissue examined decreased from 15 to 90 days after labelling with the epidermal tissues maintaining a higher percentage of LRCs than the oral mucosae. Grain counts for LRCs in each tissue at each time period indicated that the number of silver grains overlying LRCs also decreased with time. The observed decrease in numbers of LRCs and the change in their degree of labelling with time suggest that such cells divide slowly, a property associated with stem cells.
先前已在小鼠和仓鼠的皮肤及口腔黏膜中证实，存在一群保留氚标记胸腺嘧啶核苷的上皮细胞（称为标记保留细胞，即LRCs）。为了检测LRCs数量的减少速率以及标记程度的变化，给幼鼠注射氚标记胸腺嘧啶核苷，并评估标记从基底角质形成细胞中稀释的速率，长达90天。在标记后15至90天内，每个检测组织中的LRCs数量均减少，表皮组织中LRCs的百分比高于口腔黏膜。每个时间段各组织中LRCs的颗粒计数表明，LRCs上的银颗粒数量也随时间减少。观察到的LRCs数量减少以及其标记程度随时间的变化表明，此类细胞分裂缓慢，这是干细胞的一个特性。
