A thermal injury-induced circulating factor(s) compromises intestinal cellmorphology, proliferation, and migration

The effects of a 60% body surface area thermal injury in rats on the morpho logy and proliferation of the epithelium of the small intestine and the in vitro effects of serum collected from scalded rats on intestinal epithelial cells were investigated. Scald injury caused significant reductions in duo denal villus width and crypt dimensions, villus enterocytes changed in shap e from columnar to cuboidal, and the number of goblet cells decreased. The proportion of bromodeoxyuridine-labeled S phase cells in crypts was also di minished. In vitro, incubation of intestinal epithelial cells (IEC-6) with scalded rat serum (SRS) collected at either 12 or 24 h after injury caused a disruption in the integrity of the confluent culture Emd induced the appe arance of large denuded areas. SRS also decreased DNA synthesis and delayed wound closure in an in vitro wound-healing model. The thermal injury-induc ed changes in intestinal mucosal morphology and epithelial cell growth char acteristics described in this study may underlie, in part, the mechanism(s) involved in the diminished absorption of nutrients, increased intestinal p ermeability, and sepsis in patients with thermal injury.