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PURPOSE: Investigated the effect of intraluminal short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) on the intestinal mucosa in the presence of ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI). METHODS: Six blind sacs of the small bowel (3at the jejunum and 3 at the ileum) were created in ten Wistar rats. The lateral sacs of both bowel regions were subjected to IRI (15/15 minutes) while the medial sacs were let free to receive blood supply. In the lateral sacs, it was injected either a solution containing SCFA (butyrate, propionate and acetate) or pure saline at the bowel lumen. No fluid was injected in the medial sacs. RESULTS: Both at the jejunum and at the ileum the score of the mucosal injury was higher in saline than in control sacs. SCFA treated sacs showed lesser score at the ileum (p=0.03) but were not significantly different at the jejunum (p=0.83) when compared with saline sacs. It was found a significant greater number of neutrophils (p < 0.01) in the sacs treated with saline than in the other two sacs in both regions. CONCLUSION: SCFA protect the distal small bowel mucosa and diminishes infiltration of neutrophils to the gut lamina propria in IRI.