AJP - Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology, Vol 251, Issue 6 815-G822, Copyright © 1986 by American Physiological Society
Blood flow responses to small bowel resection
M. G. Ulrich-Baker, M. E. Hollwarth, P. R. Kvietys and D. N. Granger
The objective of this study was to determine whether the gastrointestinal
blood flow response to small bowel resection is related to the compensatory
hyperplasia resulting from resection. In one group of rats, a laparotomy
was performed and 80% of the small bowel resected, reanastomosing proximal
jejunum with distal ileum. In the second group (controls), a transection
followed by reanastomosis was performed either in the jejunum or ileum.
One, two, three, or five days later, the animals were anesthetized, and
blood flows to the stomach, jejunum, ileum, cecum, colon, and pancreas were
measured using the radioactive microsphere technique. Samples of these
tissues were obtained for determination of thymidine incorporation and DNA
content. Growth, as evidenced by increases in tissue weight, DNA content,
and rate of DNA synthesis, occurred in all tissues. Blood flow was elevated
in the pancreas and in bowel segments (ileum and cecum) distal to the site
of resection. Gastric, jejunal and colonic blood flows were not affected by
bowel resection, in spite of similar trophic changes. Paired-value analyses
did not reveal any correlation between blood flow and rate of DNA
synthesis. The results of these studies suggest that humoral, rather than
metabolic, factors are responsible for the gastrointestinal and pancreatic
hyperemia that occurs after small bowel resection.
