The interaction between malnutrition and exposure to a mucosal damaging agent, difluoromethylornithine (DFMO), was examined by monitoring the small-intestinal changes in weanling rats. Malnutrition as induced by the expanded-litter method resulted in severe reduction in body weights in the expanded litters as compared to normal litters. Subsequent treatment of malnourished and well-nourished pups with DFMO for 7 days resulted in decreases in small-intestinal weights and enzyme contents. A 2 factors (well-nourished and malnourished) by 2 factors (DFMO-treated and nontreated) analysis of variance showed no interaction between malnutrition and DFMO treatment in terms of food intake, total mucosal protein, and contents of enterokinase, leucine aminopeptidase and sucrase. Very slight and insignificant interactions (p less than or equal to 0.2) were found for body weights, intestinal weights and total DNA content. Only one parameter studied, the maltase content, showed significant interaction between malnutrition and DFMO treatment (p less than 0.05). Three weeks after the withdrawal of DFMO, essentially all the changes caused by DFMO recovered. But those changes caused by malnutrition did not, such that the malnourished group, whether treated with DFMO or not, still remained significantly less than the control group in their small-intestinal parameters. Analysis of variance showed no interaction between malnutrition and DFMO treatment in the recovery phase. The results suggest that malnutrition is a more important factor in determining the intestinal damage and that malnutrition in the immediate postnatal period does not increase the sensitivity of the small intestine to the damaging effect of DFMO.