The regulation of intestinal hypersensitivity reactions to ovalbumin by omega-3 fatty acid enriched diet: studies of IEL and LPL in mucosal damage.

In order to clarify the mechanisms of food-sensitive enteropathy, a food hypersensitive model was generated by feeding ovalbumin to female BALB/c mice after intraperitoneal injection of cyclophosphamide and morphological and immunological changes in the gut mucosa were investigated. Villus atrophy, crypt hyperplasia and increased numbers of intra-epithelial lymphocytes (IEL) were confirmed in this model, as seen in food-sensitive enteropathy in humans. Subpopulations of IEL and lamina propria lymphocytes were enumerated by immunohistochemical observation. CD8-positive cells were increased both in epithelium and lamina propria, whereas CD4-positive cells were decreased in lamina propria. We document here that orally administered food antigen actually induces food-sensitive enteropathy and mucosal damage is generated by lymphocytes that infiltrate the intestinal mucosa. We also investigated the effect of feeding an omega-3 fatty acid-enriched diet in this model and found that it was efficient in attenuating mucosal damage.