ABSTRACT
Intestinal smooth muscle cells could also undergo an increase in individual cell size during inflammation, and this hypertrophy could contribute to the increased wall thickness. Structural changes of the smooth muscle have been long recognized as a characteristic present in the intestine with active inflammatory bowel disease – Morson demonstrated thickening of the muscle layers in inflamed gut regions of Crohn’s disease patients. Investigation of specific neurotransmitters has shown that low concentrations of some neuropeptides are mitogenic for vascular smooth muscle cells in vitro. The increased vessel wall thickness that occurs in atherosclerosis may give an important insight to smooth muscle growth. Examination of the individual experimental models shows that the increased smooth muscle mass may involve hyperplasia or hypertrophy alone, or more usually, a combination of these mechanisms. The Trichinella spiralis adults and larvae contact only the mucosa before entering the blood stream, and so are remote from the smooth muscle layers.
