Page "Diverticulosis" Paragraph 18

Change in the strength of the colonic wall with age may be an aetiological factor.

Connective tissue is a significant contributor to the strength of the colonic wall.

The mechanical properties of connective tissue depend on a wide variety of factors, the type of tissue and its age, the nature of the intramolecular and intermolecular covalent cross links and the quantity of the glycosaminoglycans associated with the collagen fibrils.

The submucosa of the colon is composed almost entirely of collagen, both type I and type III.

Several layers of collagen fibres make up the submucosa of the human colon.

The collagen fibril diameters and fibril counts are different between the left and right colon and change with age and in colonic diverticulosis ,.

The implication being that changes which are normally associated with ageing are more pronounced in colonic diverticulosis.

Iwasaki found that the tensile strength of the Japanese colon obtained at postmortem declined with age.

Similarly the mechanical properties of the colon are stronger in African than European subjects.

However, this race-based claim is contradicted by the virtually identical incidence of diverticular disease in black and white Americans.