[Mastocytes in the human intestinal mucosa]

A method has been for counting the mastocytes on 0.1 mm2 of intestinal mucosa in patients with chronic enterocolitis, gluten enteropathy, ulcerous colitis in a stage of exacerbation and in controls. The comparison of the results obtained in the separate groups of patients reveal an increased number of mastocytes in gluten enteropathy--mean = 21.01 +/- 6 as compared with the chronic enterocolitis, where mean = 9.79 +/- 3.83 (p = 0.002). Higher values of mastocytes in rectal mucosa were observed in the patients with ulcerous mucosa--mean = 15.83 +/- 4.49 as compared with the control subjects with means = 3.67 +/- 0.99 (p = 0.001). those data admit the participation of mastocytes in the morbid process in patients with gluten enteropathy and with ulcerous colitis.