Functional Changes of Paneth Cells in the Intestinal Epithelium of Mice with Obstructive Jaundice and After Internal and External Biliary Drainage.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the functional changes of Paneth cells in the intestinal epithelium of mice with obstructive jaundice (OJ) and after internal biliary drainage (ID) and external biliary drainage (ED).
METHODS: The experiment was divided into two stages. First stage: Mice were randomly assigned to two groups: (I) sham operation (SH); (II) OJ. The mice were sacrificed before the operation and on the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th day after the operation to collect specimens. Second stage: Mice were randomly assigned to four groups: (I) SH; (II) OJ; (III) OJ and ED; and (IV) OJ and ID. They were reoperated on day 5 for biliary drainage procedure. The specimens were collected on day 10.
RESULTS: The expressions of lysozyme and cryptdin-4 increased first and then decreased over time in group OJ, and the number of Paneth cells decreased gradually with the extension of OJ time（p<0.05. After the secondary operation on the mice to relieve OJ, the number of Paneth cells and expressions of lysozyme and cryptdin-4 in group ID increased more significantly than those in group ED（p<0.05）.
CONCLUSION: OJ could cause intestinal Paneth cells to dysfunction in mice. ID was more significant than ED in restoring the function of Paneth cells. It might be one of the mechanisms that make ID superior to ED. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.