Background Polyamines are essential for cell growth. Dietary and probably gut bacterial derived polyamines contribute significantly to the polyamine body pool.

Aims To evaluate the influence of dietary, luminal polyamines on growth and development of different gastrointestinal organs in normally growing rats.

Results No differences in body weight gain, food consumption, or general behaviour could be observed between the four groups of animals. Feeding of PDD alone or PDD plus antibiotics resulted in a highly significant decrease in organ weight, protein content, and DNA content in small intestinal and colonic mucosa whereas no alterations were found in the liver.

Conclusions Long term feeding of polyamine deficient diets resulted in a significant hypoplasia of small intestinal and colonic mucosa. Dietary, luminal polyamines are important local factors for growth and the development of small intestinal and colonic mucosa.