Morphofunctional Changes in Colon after Cold Stress in Male C57BL/6 Mice Susceptible and Tolerant to Hypoxia

There are individual differences in the tolerance to hypoxia and stress. Stress can contribute to the development of various diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease. It was found that inflammatory bowel diseases in animals susceptible to hypoxia runs more severe course than in tolerant animals. We studied morphofunctional changes in the colon under conditions of modeled cold stress in male C57BL/6 mice susceptible and tolerant to hypoxia. The animals were daily subjected to cold stress (20 min at -20°C) for 2 weeks. Cold stress was followed by an increase in the volume fraction of goblet cells in the colon and production of mucins by these cells in mice tolerant to hypoxia and an increase in cell content in the lamina propria of the colon mucous membrane in animals susceptible to hypoxia. The number of serotoninproducing endocrine cells increased in both groups, but these changes were more pronounced in mice susceptible to hypoxia.