Luminal dilatation and morphologic changes secondary to enterotoxins

Structural changes in ligated rat small intestinal loops exposed to purified cholera enterotoxin are described. Distention secondary to increased luminal fluid was found to cause the artifactual histologic damage. This finding questions the validity of interpreting mucosal changes in closed intestinal-loop models in the presence of severe distention. An alternative open-loop model is described that eliminates distention as a cause of histologic changes.