Morphology and ontogeny of dendritic cells in rats at different development periods

Table 1 Morphoriogical changes of intestinal mucosa at different development periods in SD rats (mean ± SD)

	3 wk	5 wk	7 wk	9 wk	11 wk	F	P
Villous height (&mgr;m)	115.24 ± 21.82	140.43 ± 22.30	210.71 ± 59.47	145.43 ± 34.21	205.14 ± 51.31	10.751	0.000
Villous width (&mgr;m)	34.41 ± 8.67	60.57 ± 20.61	93.06 ± 35.03	66.91 ± 21.28	38.82 ± 8.96	12.374	0.000
Villous areas (&mgr;m2)	3334.46 ± 1134.11	5451.92 ± 2029.10	13817.60 ± 5236.52	7495.52 ± 3059.18	7209.91 ± 2087.77	16.527	0.000
Crypt depth (&mgr;m)	30.06 ± 6.61	44.12 ± 9.25	58.76 ± 14.16	58.70 ± 29.04	48.29 ± 12.94	5.291	0.001
Villous height/crypt depth	3.92 ± 0.76	3.30 ± 0.79	3.74 ± 1.22	2.80 ± 1.01	4.54 ± 1.56	3.486	0.015

Table 2 Changes of the areas of Peyer’s patches (PP) at different development periods in SD rats (mean ± SD)

	3 wk	5 wk	7 wk	9 wk	11 wk	F	P
PP areas (&mgr;m2)	12.25 ± 4.69	18.91 ± 7.73	24.68 ± 7.73	36.13 ± 14.59	37.12 ± 8.20	7.474	0.000

Table 3 Changes in expression of OX62⁺DC, OX62⁺CD4⁺SIRP⁺DC and OX62⁺CD4^-SIRP^-DC subsets with development of SD rats (mean ± SD)

Age	3 wk	5 wk	7 wk	9 wk	11 wk	F	P
OX62+DC/total cells in PP (%)	0.333 ± 0.058	0.367 ± 0.115	0.467 ± 0.153	0.533 ± 0.153	0.8 ± 0.173	5.536	0.013
Ox62+CD4+SIRP+DC/OX62+DC (%)	31.87 ± 1.99	30.73 ± 5.16	35.50 ± 4.08	34.20 ± 1.35	43.60 ± 2.07	7.216	0.005
Ox62+CD4-SIRP-DC/OX62+DC (%)	33.27 ± 5.71	25.33 ± 2.82	24.53 ± 2.64	28.97 ± 1.89	28.43 ± 1.94	3.242	0.060