Enterocyte migration in the foetal sheep small intestine.

The migration of enterocytes was studied in the small intestine of foetal sheep at 115 and 136 days of gestation in utero. The speed of migration in all cases was slower than that reported in the adult. At 115 days, the migration rate was 4.88 and 4.96 percent villus height/day for the proximal and distal small intestine, respectively. At 136 days, the migration rate was significantly increased (p less than 0.05) to 12.0 for the proximal and to 8.5%, for the distal small intestine. Rates of villus length increase were between 0.007 and 0.012 mm/day over the time course studied. The migration rates, expressed as millimeters per day, were between 0.23 and 0.76 mm/day, hence the rate of migration was much greater (between 3 and 16 times) than the villus growth rate.