Disaccharidases in rat small intestinal mucosa following cytostatic treatment with adriamycin.

Our studies have shown that appropriate doses of adriamycin can reduce the activities of the intestinal disaccharidases in the rat. At higher doses, in addition to morphological changes in the intestinal mucosa, a considerable fall in disaccharidase activities also occurs. This functional impairment can be seen for a period of several days after the morphological restitution of the mucosa. Appropriate studies of the small intestinal mucosa in man will have to be undertaken to show whether similar impairment occurs at therapeutic doses.