Morphometric study of healthy jejunal and ileal mucosa in adult and aged subjects.

Small intestine mucosa is often affected with malabsorptive, autoimmune and inflammatory pathological processes. However, morphometric data on the healthy human small intestine mucosa, especially ileum, are scarce. We aimed to obtain histoquantitative data on the healthy jejunal and ileal mucosa and assess the effects of gender and ageing on these parameters. Computer-aided morphometric analysis was performed on 24 jejunal and 25 ileal biopsy samples collected upon routine endoscopy screening of healthy persons with a family history of intestinal malignancy. Subjects were distributed in four groups according to age and sex: adult (<60 years) and elderly (>60 years) males, and adult (<60 years) and elderly (>60 years) females. Results were statistically analyzed with Mann-Whitney U test. Jejunal mucosal thickness was significantly reduced in elderly subjects (p<0.05), especially in elderly females compared to adult ones (p<0.05). Jejunal villi were significantly wider in adult than in the elderly subjects (p<0.05), whereas ileal villi were significantly wider in elderly compared to adult subjects (p<0.01) and in male compared to female subjects (p<0.05). No statistically significant differences were found in other histoquantitative parameters (mucosa epithelium height, crypt numerical density, villous height, crypts and villous perimeter, diameter and epithelium height) of jejunal and ileal mucosa. This study provides complete morphometric data on the healthy human jejunum and the first relevant data on the healthy ileal mucosa, thus representing a valuable morphometric reference for future histoquantitative studies of human small bowel mucosa in both healthy and disease affected individuals.