Experimental intestinal malabsorption states and their relation to clinical syndromes

Summary The literature pertaining to experimental malabsorption syndromes induced in laboratory animals is reviewed and the relationships between these syndromes and human malabsorption are discussed. Particular attention is paid to functional studies and to relationships between structure and function. The syndromes discussed include the effect of anti-mitotic drugs, including colchicine (which may have a distinct inhibitory effect on intestinal disaccharidases and therefore provide a mode for disaccharide intolerance); the effect of ionising radiation; intestinal damage from triparanol, and its relationship to human gluten enteropathy; the response of the intestine to ischaemia and shock; and finally the effect of neomycin, a drug that has provoked symptoms of malabsorption in man which have never been satisfactorily explained nor reproduced in animal studies.