There were also occasional crypts that exhibited staining along the upper crypt epithelium in both genotypes.
Ectopic crypt formation, meaning crypts that do not reach the muscularis mucosa, is characteristic to TSA.
Aberrant crypt foci comprise a contiguous collection of crypts that have thickened epithelia, altered luminal openings and are clearly circumscribed from adjacent normal crypts (Bird, 1987).
Residual crypts that were strongly p16+ appeared atrophic.
SSA was diagnosed by five architectural features; basal crypt serration, basal dilatation of the crypts, crypts that run horizontal to the basement membrane, crypt branching and surface villosity or papillarity as previously described [ 17, 30- 32].
Aberrant crypt foci (ACF), defined as lesions containing crypts that are larger in diameter and stain more darkly with methylene blue than normal crypts, are considered as a reliable surrogate biomarker of CRC.
A number of other scenarios could also account for the higher diversity of branched crypts including crypt fusion (unrelated crypts that merge) and stalled or long-lived fission intermediates.
We have developed a culture model of near-native human colonic crypts that preserves crypt length, topology, morphology and cellular polarity.
Respiratory chain deficiency increased exponentially with age (Fig. 2a) in a pattern identical with that observed in our previous studies of COX deficiency in individual crypts (Taylor et al., 2003).
We have also shown that methylation levels measured within mucosal biopsies reflect highly variable levels of methylation in individual crypts (Belshaw et al., 2010).
