Relative contribution of Peyer's patches to intestinal DNA content and tritiated thymidine content of the mouse small intestine.
The quantification of mucosal DNA as a measure of epithelial cellularity has been criticized because it would include the non-epithelial cell populations present in the mucosa. The weight, DNA content and tritiated thymidine uptake of Peyer's patches and the remaining mucosa were measured and compared. Although the Peyer's patches only contribute 2.5% to the weight of the small intestine, they contained 12% of the DNA and 7% of the tritiated thymidine which would be found in a mucosal scrape.