Table 1.

Intestinal mucosal parameters

	CONTR	CONTR-ARG	MTX	MTX-ARG
Bowel weight
(mg/cm/100 mg body weight)
Jejunum	23 ± 1	21 ± 1	17 ± 0.3 *	19 ± 1 *†
Ileum	21 ± 1	19 ± 1	17 ± 1 *	21 ± 1 *†
Mucosal weight
(mg/cm/100 mg body weight)
Jejunum	9.4 ± 0.5	7.6 ± 0.5 *	5.1 ± 0.6 *	6.2 ± 0.6
Ileum	9.1 ± 0.5	6.7 ± 0.5 *	4.7 ± 0.5 *	6.1 ± 0.6 *†
Mucosal DNA
(μg/cm/100 mg body weight)
Jejunum	45 ± 7	30 ± 4 *	22 ± 5 *	25 ± 3 *
Ileum	47 ± 6	52 ± 4	19 ± 4 *	38 ± 9 †
Mucosal protein
(μg/cm/100 mg body weight)
Jejunum	94 ± 21	60 ± 11	58 ± 10 *	58 ± 5 *
Ileum	54 ± 10	44 ± 8	32 ± 5 *	51 ± 8 †
Villus height (μm)
Jejunum	434 ± 29	345 ± 56	314 ± 33 *	413 ± 18 †
Ileum	371 ± 26	287 ± 19 *	217 ± 52 *	300 ± 23 *†
Crypt depth (μm)
Jejunum	183 ± 17	131 ± 8 *	112 ± 4 *	126 ± 11
Ileum	161 ± 16	120 ± 8 *	101 ± 15 *	131 ± 10 *†

CONTR- control, MTX-methotrexate, ARG-arginine

* P < 0.05 All groups vs CONTR rats, † P < 0.05 MTX-ARG vs MTX rats.