Observations on the muscle abnormality of the human sigmoid colon in diverticular disease

1 Pharmacological experiments were performed on circular and longitudinal muscle strips of sigmoid colon from diverticular disease specimens, and their responses compared with those of similar muscle strips from sigmoid colon resected from carcinoma (control). 2 The longitudinal muscle strips from diverticular disease specimens were significantly less responsive to acetylcholine, histamine or noradrenaline than control longitudinal muscle strips. 3 The responses of the diverticular circular muscle strips showed a small decrease to acetylcholine, a small increase to noradrenaline and no change to histamine when compared to control strips.