[Structural characteristics of the small intestine mucosa of rats on diets with varying amounts of protein].

The small bowel mucosa of rats fed diets containing 4 and 35% of protein in terms of caloricity over 1 month demonstrated, as compared with control (18% of protein), alterations in the nuclei, in the degree of lymphoid infiltration, number of mitoses and gobiet cells in the epithelium, pointing to changes or impairment of maturation and differentiation of the cells of the epithelial layer. The degree of mucosa plasmatization was also discovered to be reduced as compared with control. The rearrangements in question attest to a decrease in the resistance of the mucosa. These rearrangements are more demonstrable in the intestine of rats which received low-protein diets, being far more pronounced in the distal parts.