Apoptotic colon disease: a new clinico-pathological entity.
A patient with intractable diarrhea showed, in 6 out of 7 biopsies taken at various colonic levels, a rich number of apoptotic granules at the base of the colonic crypts. Those apoptotic granules stained positive with Feulgen, a reaction that stains nuclear DNA. The nuclei of the cells at the base of the crypts stained positive with TUNEL, a method that labels nuclei undergoing apoptosis. No associated inflammatory reaction was present in the biopsies. As no other explanation was found for the phenomenon, the possibility that marked cryptal apoptosis was the cause of the untreatable protracted diarrhea was entertained. A similar histological finding had previously been recorded in a non-human primate dying of intractable diarrhea. That phenomenon was designated apoptotic colonic disease. We propose a similar denomination for this previously unreported finding in a human subject.
Rubio
C A
CA
Research Laboratory, Karolinska Institute, 17176 Stockholm, Sweden. Carlos.Rubio@onkpat.ki.se
Jacobsson
B
B
D000368:Aged; D017209:Apoptosis; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003108:Colonic Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male