The role of smooth muscle in intestinal inflammation

The observation that active ulcerative colitis is accompanied by a reduction in motor activity in the distal colon1–3 suggests that the contractility of colonic smooth muscle may be impaired as a result of inflammation. this has been confirmed in an in-vitro study of human colonic circular muscle in which contraction induced by either bethanechol or KC1 was significantly reduced in comparison to muscle obtained from patients without …