Food deprivation and intestinal mucosa of rat. A histological and surface-ultra structural study

ABSTRACT

Thirty adult male albino rats were categorized into 3 groups; namely, a control, a starved and a refer group after starvation. Specimens were taken from the proximal half of the small intestine for histological, photometric, histochemical and electron microscopic scanning studies. The intestinal mucosa of the starved rats revealed a significant decrease in the length of the villi as areas of mucosal ulceration. Re-feeding of the rats for 5 days after 5 days of starvation was associated with a reversal of the previous changes