ABSTRACT
Tissue for histologic staining and quantitation of collagen and collagen types was obtained from pathological specimens resected from patients with Crohn’s disease. The cell culture studies have demonstrated that intestinal smooth muscle cells produce relatively large amounts of collagen, that they produce the same collagen types found in strictured bowel, and that collagen production increases when the cells are proliferating in the presence of fetal calf serum. A common complication of chronic intestinal inflammation is thickening of the bowel wall and narrowing of the lumen known as stricture formation. The collagen content of the bowel wall was determined by quantitating hydroxyproline in full-thickness samples taken with a 6 mm dermal trephine. The muscularis mucosae was markedly expanded by an increase in the number of smooth muscle cells in connective tissue layers, and the presence of large amounts of collagen associated with these cells.
