RABBIT AND HUMAN NON-KERATINISING STRATIFIED SQUAMOUS ESOPHAGEAL EPITHELIUM DISPLAYS SIMILAR MICRORIDGE STRUCTURE BY SCANNING ELECTRON-MICROSCOPY

Since the oesophageal epithelium of common laboratory animals, rats an d mice, is keratinized it is unsuitable for comparison with typical no n-keratinized stratified squamous human epithelium. It is thus importa nt to find a suitable animal model for the study of human oesophageal tissue changes. This study investigated the microridge structure of im mature and adult rabbit specimens, and adult human biopsies by scannin g electron microscopy and morphometry. The investigation revealed a si milarity between typical squamous human and adult rabbit oesophageal m ucosal epithelium. While human epithelium specimens subdivided into tw o other groups (non-typical squamous and nonsquamous); all typical squ amous human biopsies were from patients who had normal endoscopy repor ts and no reflux symptoms. The surface cells of typical squamous human epithelium displayed complex microridge patterns (64% of cell surface ) but patterns in non-typical squamous specimens were more variable (3 8%) (P < 0.001) and cell boundaries less obvious. Rabbit squames displ ayed clear microridge patterns with an elevation in the percentage of cell surface covered by microridges, with increasing age, from immatur e to adult specimens (P < 0.001). There was no statistically significa nt differences between adult rabbit, and 'typical squamous' human biop sies (range 51-65%), results which suggest potential use of a rabbit m odel to study changes in human oesophageal tissue.