A useful experimental model of short bowel syndrome

The short bowel syndrome is a well-known human clinical entity that produces serious metabolic disorders. This syndrome arises after a massive resection of more than 50% of the small intestine, when the intestine attempts to minimize the consequent irregularities by means of compensatory mechanisms. Many reports suggest that an exocrine and endocrine pancreatic dysfunction is associated with enterohormones and an abnormal altered nutrient flow. In this report, we present an experimental model of short bowel syndrome in rats. A massive intestine resection was performed in rats, followed by a histological study of the small intestine. We report the histological changes related to the compensatory changes that occurred in the remaining intestine. The residual intestine produces a hyperplasic response, and hypertrophy was seen in the portion proximal to the anastomosis. We believe this experimental model of short bowel syndrome could be a very useful tool for studying the enterohormonal changes related to an abnormal blood flow of nutrients.