THE EFFECT OF l-ASCORBIC ACID ON EPITHELIAL SHEETS IN TISSUE CULTURE

Abstract

Tissue cultures were made of kidney and parotid gland from guinea pig embryos and of kidney and intestine from chick embryos. The action of 1-ascorbic acid was tested on the growing epithelial sheets. Cultures treated with plasma and serum from scorbutic guinea pigs ceased to grow but the epithelial sheets did not lose their coherence. Ultimately the cells deteriorated. The presence of 1-ascorbic acid was non-essential for re-establishing the cohesion of epithelial sheets previously separated by the lack of Ca in the medium. The intercellular cement upon which this cohesion depends must, therefore, be of a different order from the interstitial matrices which, Wolbach and others have found, depend upon the presence of ascorbic acid for their elaboration. Tissue cultures of epithelium, washed free of the water-diffusible ingredients of the plasma medium and transferred to a buffered salt and glucose solution, remained healthy and active only when 1-ascorbic acid was present in the soln. The addition of cortical extract either in the presence or absence of 1-ascorbic acid exerted no observable effect on the viability of tissue cultures.