Clinical, biological, and histological follow-up during intestinal adaptation after small-bowel resection in the dog.

Massive resections of the intestine including the ileocecal valve are associated with a high mortality. This model of short bowel in the dog consists of an extensive small-bowel resection (remaining jejunum 25 cm) associated with colectomy. Small-bowel adaptation is evidenced by increases of crypt depth (p = 0.02) and villus height (p = 0.001) in animals fed per os. Plasma glutamine levels decrease after surgery, while there is a significant decrease of plasma alanine levels (p less than 0.001). This model should allow to pursue investigations on the importance of glutamine as an essential fuel for intestinal mucosa regeneration.