Technical note: isolation and characterization of sheep ruminal epithelial cells

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Abstract
A system for the isolation and characterization of sheep ruminai epithelial cells has been developed. Ruminai papillae from the ventral cranial sac of 12- to 24-wk-old Dorset ram lambs were subjected to serial tryptic digestions. Initial digestions (two 15-min periods) in the series were used to remove keratinized cells of the stratum corneum, which were able to produce only small amounts of ß-hydroxybutyrate from butyrate (5.37 ± .72 nmol/120 min/per milligram of dry cell weight). Later digest fractions, containing primarily cells from the stratum basale, exhibited high viabilities (75 to 95%) and proved capable of converting butyrate to ß-hydroxybutyrate at relatively high rates (33.6 ± 6.7 nmol/120 min per milligram of dry cell weight). Neither acetate nor propionate underwent significant conversion to ß-hydroxybutyrate. However, addition of acetate inhibited (77.4% of control) and addition of propionate stimulated (200% of control) ß-hydroxybutyrate production. Acetate addition reduced the propionate-induced stimulation of ß-hydroxybutyrate production from butyrate (136% of control). These results are similar to those obtained from in vitro incubations of ruminai papillae and suggest that an isolated cell system may prove useful in the further study of ruminai epithelial metabolism.

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