Food intake of rats increases during pregnancy. This requires changes in the structure of the small intestine to absorb additional food. The aim of the present study was to investigate the morphological changes in the layers of small intestine in rats during pregnancy. Duodenum, jejunum and ileum of 18 pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats (day 7, 14 and 21 of pregnancy) were collected. Villous height a...

The impact of dietary factors on the gut morphological maturation is poorly documented in rabbits. The weights of the digestive segments as well as the morphology of villi and crypts along the small intestine were analysed weekly from day 14 till day 49, in two rabbit groups weaned at either 21 (W21 group, n = 12 litters) or 35 days (W35 group, n = 12 litters) of age. From 21 till 35 days, the ...

Rotavirus infection is the most common cause of acute diarrhoea in children worldwide. The structural and functional consequences of mammalian rotavirus infection in the small intestine have been incompletely studied and the mechanism of enterocyte damage poorly defined. This study used a neonatal rat model of group B rotavirus infection to study the natural history, clinical features, and the ...

Drug-metabolizing enzymes, especially monooxygenases, play a major role in biotransformation and detoxification of many foreign compounds including environmental carcinogens. Although largely localized in the liver they are also found in the small intestine, which is the portal of entry of dietary toxins. Therefore cytochrome P-450 content as well as monooxygenase (7-ethoxycoumarin O-deethylase...

1. Immature, male Wistar rats were given a low-zinc diet (2 mg/kg) for 22-24 d. Control groups received a similar diet supplemented with 58 mg Zn/kg either ad lib., or in amounts matched to the consumption of the Zn-deficient group. Food consumption, rate of growth and food conversion efficiency were markedly lower in the Zn-deficient group of rats compared with controls. Appetite, growth rate ...

context celiac disease (cd) is defined as a permanent intolerance to ingested gluten. the intolerance to gluten results in immune-mediated damage of small intestine mucosa manifested by villous atrophy and crypt hyperplasia. these abnormalities resolve with initiationa gluten-free diet. evidence acquisition pubmed, ovid, and google were searched for full text articles published between 1963 and...

Small intestine mucosa is often affected with malabsorptive, autoimmune and inflammatory pathological processes. However, morphometric data on the healthy human small intestine mucosa, especially ileum, are scarce. We aimed to obtain histoquantitative data on the healthy jejunal and ileal mucosa and assess the effects of gender and ageing on these parameters. Computer-aided morphometric analysi...

The mucosa of the small intestine of neonatal calves responds in a similar way to a variety of infectious agents. However, samples should be removed under general anaesthesia to avoid post-mortem artefacts. These include the separation of epithelium from the villous lamina propria and denudation of villous tips within a few minutes of death, and occur more rapidly in challenged animals. Patholo...