Histopathology and histochemistry of the jejunal mucosa in the elderly

ABSTRACT

Jejunal mucosal biopsy specimens, obtained by Watson's capsule from 20 senescent males aged above 60 and 5 control males aged below 50 years were examined histopathologically, and histochemically. There were progressive blunting and flattening of villi with ageing together with altered crypt-villus ratio up to 31. This together with the few mitotic figures seen at the neck of the crypts indicated a hypoplastic mitotic process. The histochemical findings showed reduced enzymatic activities with ageing concerning succinic dehydrogenase, simple esterases, alkaline phosphatase and acid phospbatase