Cholera enterotoxin-induced mucus secretion and increase in the mucus blanket of the rabbit ileum in vivo.

The in vivo rabbit ileum was used to study the relationship of cholera enterotoxin-induced water and electrolyte secretion and mucus secretion and to determine whether the enterotoxin influenced the intestinal mucus blanket. In experiments in which luminal fluid viscosity was used to assess mucus secretion, it was found that while cholera enterotoxin induced a sustained secretion of water and electrolytes, the toxin-induced mucus hypersecretion was short lived (3 to 5 h) and subsequent exposure of the mucosa to cholera enterotoxin or prostaglandin E1 did not stimulate mucus secretion further. Dibutyryl cyclic AMP and theophylline caused a modest mucus secretion in ileal loops which differed from that of cholera enterotoxin in both magnitude and in the fact that the mucus secretion occurred 2 to 3 h after the onset of water and electrolyte secretion. An oral replacement solution was used in the ileum to reduce the enterotoxin-induced loss of water and electrolytes into the lumen. While such a solution slowed the appearance of acidic glycoprotein in the intestinal lumen, it did not change the amount of glycoprotein secreted over a 7-h period, suggesting that toxin-induced mucus secretion was not simply due to a flushing action of the experimentally caused diarrhea. To assess mucus blanket thickness, neutral glycoprotein was recovered from the blanket of rabbit ileal loops 7 h after exposure to cholera enterotoxin and the thickness of the mucus blanket was measured directly 4 and 18 h after toxin exposure. Both methods indicated that even though cholera enterotoxin-induced mucus hypersecretion had subsided and there was histological evidence of goblet cell mucin depletion, there was a sustained increase in mucus blanket thickness that was detectable for at least 18 h after mucosal enterotoxin exposure.