[Characteristic of proliferative processes in colonic mucosa in acute salmonellosis]

DNA synthesis in the epithelium of a distal portion of human colon was studied at radioautography with 3H-thymidine through the first three days of gastrointestinal salmonellesis. Control studies were performed on the mucosa of the sigmoid colon of healthy persons undergoing rectoromanoscopy because of epidemiological reasons. No pathological changes were found in these specimens, the labeled nuclei index (LNI) was 5.16 +/- 0.27%, the label intensity (LI) which characterizes the rate of DNA synthesis was 13.65 +/- 0.82. Group 1 consisted of 18 patients having slight inflammation without erosions, ulcerative and haemorrhagic changes. We found significant activation of proliferation (LNI = 15.09 +/- 0.9%, LI = 22.23 +/- 1.9; p < 0.05) in this group compared to the control one. 15 patients with salmonella-induced hemorrhagic colitis formed group 2 in which LNI and LI were also increased (LNI = 9.89 +/- 1.0%, LI = 19.3 +/- 2.3; p < 0.02) vs. control group, but these changes seemed to be significantly weaker than those in group 1 (p < 0.01). It is inferred that rates of proliferation in colon epithelium in acute salmonellosis are significantly higher than in healthy epithelium but activity of these processes decreases with growing severity of inflammation.