AJP - Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology, Vol 254, Issue 3 307-G314, Copyright © 1988 by American Physiological Society
Intestinal anaphylaxis: rapid changes in mucosal ion transport and morphology
D. A. Baron, A. W. Baird, A. W. Cuthbert and H. S. Margolius
Department of Cell and Molecular Pharmacology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston 29425.
Anaphylactic reactions can be elicited by beta-lactoglobulin (beta LG) in
the isolated colonic and ileal mucosae of guinea pigs fed cow milk. We have
shown that these tissues respond to antigen challenge with a rapid rise in
short-circuit current (SCC) due to net chloride secretion in the colon and
less well-characterized ion movements in the ileum. Here, tissues were
characterized morphologically at or near the peak of the SCC response 2 min
after antigen addition. These sensitized preparations, or naive tissues
passively sensitized with immune sera and challenged with beta LG, showed
numerous structural alterations that correlated significantly with the
change in SCC. In the ileum, these changes included compound exocytosis of
mucous granules from goblet cells of crypts but not of villi and a decrease
in the intercellular space of the crypts. In contrast, colonic goblet cells
of both crypts and luminal surface showed no evidence of secretion, but
crypt architecture was reproducibly and characteristically altered. Thus
antigen challenge of intestinal mucosa results in temporally related but
diverse changes in morphology and ion transport.
