The Distribution of Certain Enzyme Systems in the Normal Human Gastrointestinal Tract

The last few years have seen a greatly increased interest in steatorrhea and malabsorpt ion syndromes. 1-3 At least part of this interest has followed the development of techniques for taking biopsies from the stomach 4 and selected parts of the upper small intestine. 5,6 Ylany workers have described the alte red histologie appearances of the stornach b:ops:es in pernicious anemia 4 and alterations under the dissecting microscope, and in histologie sections in idiopathic steatorrhea (sprue syndrome), celiac disease, and related conditions. 7 -10Although in some patients malabsorption is due to mechanical causes, organic lesions of the bowel, 01' bacterial contamination of the small intestine, there is suggestive evidence that others may lack necessary enzyme systems for splitting gluten.II In this context Badenoch 2 wrote "In future, careful correlation between the response to treatment and the histology, and perhaps the histochemistry of the small intestine may provide the answer."Recent advances in histochemistry now allow the demonstration of large numbers of enzyme systems in fresh frozen tissues, and it seems worthwhile to apply these techniques to fresh biopsy specimens in malabsorption st ates.Before this can usefully be done, however, it is necessary to have some idea of the normal distribution of enzyme systems throughout the mucosa of the gastrointestinal tract.A number of workers, studying the distribution of selected enzyme systems in body tissues generally , in humans and animals,