[Proliferative processes in the epithelium of colon mucosa in patients with Salmonella infection during first 24 hours after the onset of the disease].

DNA synthesis in the epithelium of a distal portion of human colon was studied by radioautography with 3H-thymidine in patients during the first 24 hours of gastrointestinal salmonellosis. All 13 patients aged 18-50 years were admitted to hospital during 9-20 hours after the disease onset. Nobody had a background of gastrointestinal pathology. The control group consisted of samples from sigmoid colon epithelium of 30 healthy individuals. The labelled nuclei index (LNI) was 5.16 +/- 0.27%, the intensity of labelling (IL) was 13.65x +/- 0.82. Endoscopic and pathomorphological studies of colonic mucosa in salmonellosis by the end of the first 24 hours of the disease showed superficial inflammation. Increased LNI (11.48 +/- 1.07%, p < 0.05) characterized activation of proliferation and increased IL (22.24 +/- 2.1, p < 0.05) showed intensification of DNA synthesis. Additionally, in one third of cases enlargement of proliferation compartment up to 2/3 crypt was noticed. It is unlikely that in this situation immune mechanisms play the key role, it seems that a direct stimulation of proliferative processes by a bacterial agent takes place.