Smooth muscle contraction bands in intestinal infarction.

We studied microscopic sections of 24 cases of intestinal infarction looking for contraction bands (CB) in the muscularis propria of the bowel wall. Controls were 11 surgical and 11 autopsy cases from patients who did not suffer any form of ischaemic disease. The difference of CB frequency was significant (P less than 0.001) in infarction versus the surgical control group. Moreover, within the study group the CB frequency was also related to the severity of the ischaemic lesion (P less than 0.01). With immunostaining, CB were not reactive with antibodies against vimentin, desmin, actin or myosin. We propose that CB genesis in intestinal smooth muscle is related to hypoxia, possibly through altered homeostasis of calcium and catecholamine metabolism.