Total Parenteral Nutrition Causes Circumferential Intestinal Atrophy, Remodeling of the Intestinal Wall, and Redistribution of Eosinophils in the Rat Gastrointestinal Tract.
Total parenteral nutrition (TPN) is held to cause intestinal atrophy and weaken mechanical and immunological barriers. To monitor the degree of atrophy caused by TPN, female Sprague-Dawley rats were, for 8 days, maintained on TPN (n = 6) and compared to identically housed controls given food and water ad libitum (n = 6). Specimens from jejunum, ileum, and colon were taken for histology and morphom