A significant association was found (P = 0.04) between tumours and the presence of 'large' ACFs (AC/ACF > 14 crypts) and a borderline significant association (P = 0.057) between the presence of tumours and sialomucin-producing ACFs.
We demonstrate that it is possible to study mucin produc- tion by ACFs, determining sulpho- and sialomucins in whole unsectioned distal colons stained with the HID-AB tech- nique. We can detect ACFs with the HID-AB technique as well as with methylene blue staining, as demonstrated by the highly significant correlation between the number of ACFs per colon and multiplicity using the two methods.