Stimulation of epithelial cell proliferation of isolated distal colon of rats by continuous colonic infusion of ammonia or short-chain fatty acids is nonadditive.

Dietary fibers accelerate colonic epithelial cell proliferation at least in part by modulating bacterial metabolism in the large intestine. Ammonia and short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) are major metabolites of hindgut bacteria and are believed to affect epithelial cell kinetics of the colon. However, the effect of luminal ammonia itself and the possible interaction of ammonia with SCFA on colonic epithelial cell proliferation have not yet been studied. The colon of rats was surgically isolated and continuously administered infusates with saline, ammonia, SCFA or both into the isolated colon for 7 d in a two-way factorial design. On d 7, vincrystine sulfate was administered intravenously to cause metaphase arrest. The activity of epithelial cell proliferation in the distal colon was estimated by using a stathmokinetic method and by histologic examination. The crypt size was significantly larger in rats given infusates containing SCFA than in rats given infusates without SCFA. Infusion of ammonia or SCFA significantly stimulated colonic epithelial cell proliferation compared with the saline infusion. Infusion of both ammonia and SCFA resulted in accumulated mitoses per crypt that did not differ from the other three infusions although the value tended to be lower than when SCFA alone were infused. Thus, stimulation of epithelial cell proliferation by ammonia and SCFA is not additive, and the interaction between them should be considered when the effects of dietary fibers on gut epithelial proliferation are investigated.