Protective effects of oral glutathione on fasting-induced intestinal atrophy through oxidative stress

Table 1 Enterocyte apoptosis of the jejunal villus and crypt evaluated by conventional light microscopy of hematoxylin and eosin-stained specimens

	SA	500 GSH	48 h fast			72 h fast
			SA	50 GSH	500 GSH	SA	50 GSH	500 GSH
Villus
Cells per villus column, n	70 ± 1	69 ± 1	56 ± 2b	64 ± 1d	67 ± 2d	56 ± 2b	63 ± 1d	65 ± 2d
Apoptotic cells per villus column, n	0.06 ± 0.01	0.09 ± 0.01	0.20 ± 0.03b	0.12 ± 0.01d	0.11 ± 0.01d	0.23 ± 0.03b	0.18 ± 0.01	0.14 ± 0.02c
Apoptotic index, %	0.09 ± 0.01	0.12 ± 0.01	0.38 ± 0.06b	0.19 ± 0.02c	0.18 ± 0.02d	0.42 ± 0.06b	0.29 ± 0.02c	0.21 ± 0.02d
Crypt
Cells per villus column, n	28 ± 0.2	27 ± 0.4	22 ± 0.4b	25 ± 0.3d	27 ± 0.4d	22 ± 0.3b	23 ± 0.4c	26 ± 0.3d
Apoptotic cells per villus column, n	0.06 ± 0.01	0.06 ± 0.01	0.18 ± 0.01b	0.08 ± 0.01d	0.09 ± 0.01d	0.17 ± 0.02b	0.10 ± 0.01d	0.11 ± 0.01d
Apoptotic index, %	0.21 ± 0.04	0.22 ± 0.02	0.81 ± 0.05b	0.32 ± 0.03d	0.33 ± 0.03d	0.78 ± 0.10b	0.41 ± 0.06d	0.40 ± 0.05d

Apoptosis was measured as in Figure 7A. 7-8 rats were tested in each group. Values represent the mean ± SE.

^bP < 0.01 vs the normally fed control;

^dP < 0.01 or

^cP < 0.05 vs the SA-treated group in each fasting period. GSH: Glutathione; SA: Saline.