Early and Late Incorporation of Tritiated Thymidine into Skin Cells and the Presence of a Long-lived G0-specific Precursor Pool

40 min after a single injection of 50 microCi of tritiated thymidine a 3 mm punch of DBA-1 mouse skin contains about 1000 dpm. This value remains constant for at least 48 hr after injection. 50 hair follicles contain about 40 dpm, and from these values the activity calculated to reside in the basal layer of a 3 mm punch of skin is 760 dpm. These values also remain constant with time after injection. Fresh punches of skin contain much more activity. The fixative-soluble fraction (the difference between fresh and fixed values) decays slowly with time. The values for DBA-2 mice are similar. Plucking the hair from the follicles appears immediately to increase the size of the fixative-soluble fraction and decrease the fixed tissue values to about 500 dpm per punch for whole skin and about 1 dpm per 50 follicles for DBA-1. Thus almost all the activity is restricted to the epidermis. The fixative-soluble fraction returns approximately to the unplucked value between 24 and 48 hr after plucking. However, during this period the fixed tissue values are rising rapidly as stimulated cells enter S. It appears that in both strains labeled material remains available for incorporation into stimulated cells for at least 48 hr after a single injection. The amount persisting appears to decrease with time. The whole-fixed skin, the hair follicles, and the epidermis all contain cells that are capable of becoming labeled after stimulation 8-48 hr after an injection. The label in question does not become incorporated into normal cycling skin or hair follicle cells. It is concluded that the DNA precursor pool is possibly connected with G(0) cells and that both the hair follicle and the basal layer of the epidermis contain these resting cells.