Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to J E Riby.
Carbohydrate malabsorption is a very important clinical entity, particularly in pediatrics, where, if untreated, it can lead to malnutrition and failure to thrive. Malabsorption that can be treated readily with elimination of the offending carbohydrate. Knowledge by the physician of the specific mechanisms involved in the physiology of carbohydrate absorption and digestion will help in the handling of the clinical situation of malabsorption.
Previous studies have shown that the absorption of fructose is aided by simultaneous ingestion of glucose. The aim of the present study was to reproduce this finding in vitro to better understand the mechanism of the effect of glucose on absorption of fructose. The phenomena could not be reproduced with everted sleeves of rat intestine or brush border vesicles. In a perfused segment of isolated intestine, it was possible to demonstrate that the transport of fructose was accelerated when glucose was present in the perfusion medium. The enhanced transport was inhibited by sucrose and also by acarbazone, an inhibitor of intestinal alpha-disaccharidases. Phlorizin had no effect on the transport of fructose. The results of these studies indicate that there is a specific carrier for fructose saturated with a low concentration of the sugar, and that in the presence of glucose there is joint absorption of the two sugars by the disaccharidase-related transport system.
Fructose found in modern diets as a constituent of the disaccharide sucrose is absorbed by a well-characterized absorptive system integrating enzymatic hydrolysis of the disaccharide and transfer of the resulting two monosaccharides through the apical membrane of the epithelial cell. The increasing use of high-fructose syrups and crystalline fructose prompted new studies aimed at the determination of the absorptive capacity for free fructose in the human gut. Results indicate that the capacity for fructose absorption is small compared with that for sucrose and glucose and is much less than previously estimated. The unexpected finding that the simultaneous ingestion of glucose can prevent fructose malabsorption suggests that the pair of monosaccharides might be absorbed by the disaccharidase-related transport system as if they were the product of the enzymatic hydrolysis of sucrose. This absorptive mechanism might not be able to transport fructose when ingested without glucose.
Circulating arginine available for synthesis of protein is produced in the kidney of the adult mammal by the action of the last two enzymes of the urea cycle, argininosuccinate synthase and argininosuccinate lyase. In a previous publication, we reported the presence of a complete biosynthetic pathway for arginine in the intestine of the neonatal mouse at a time when no other endogenous sources of arginine were available. Our present study was aimed at the determination of the source of ornithine used by the intestine of the neonatal mouse for the synthesis of arginine. We established the developmental profile of the two intestinal mitochondrial enzymes, pyrroline 5-carboxylate synthase and ornithine aminotransferase, responsible for the conversion of glutamate to ornithine. Both enzymatic activities were found to be significantly elevated throughout the suckling period with a peak of activity during the 2nd wk of life. Glutamate dehydrogenase activity in the intestine did not appear to be developmentally regulated during the suckling and weaning periods; therefore, this enzyme was used as a convenient marker to quantify mitochondrial preparations. Ornithine decarboxylase activity was undetectable in the intestine of the mouse during the suckling period and was detected briefly at weaning, indicating that ornithine synthesized in the intestinal mitochondria is probably not diverted actively into the polyamine pathway and is available for synthesis of arginine by the enzymes of the urea cycle.
The pancreatic ducts of the rats were bypassed with a catheter placed within the common bile duct to prevent the entry of pancreatic enzymes into the duodenum without interrupting bile flow. For 8 days, the animals were fed a diet (peptones, sucrose, coconut oil, vitamins, and minerals) that could be digested without pancreatic enzymes. Control animals were sham operated and pair-fed with the same diet. Relative rates of synthesis and degradation were estimated by pulse labeling and double labeling, respectively, for sucrase and for total protein, in intestinal mucosa and along the gradient of cells collected from the tip of the villus to the bottom of the crypt. The rate of degradation of sucrase was 1.7 times greater than that of total protein in controls, whereas in animals with the pancreatic bypass it was equal to that of total protein. This decrease in rate of degradation produced a proportional increase of activity of sucrase in experimental animals. The hydrolytic effect of pancreatic enzymes on sucrase was apparent along the entire length of the villus but not in the crypt. These data support the hypothesis that pancreatic proteases release sucrase-isomaltase from the brush border membrane, resulting in the observed increase of the rate of degradation. Electrophoretic separation of immunoprecipitated sucrase-isomaltase showed that the intact pro-sucrase-isomaltase observed in operated animals is split into two subunits (sucrase and isomaltase) by action of pancreatic proteases in control animals.
Rates of synthesis and degradation of sucrase-isomaltase were measured along the crypt-villus unit of intestinal mucosa of rats fed either a high-sucrose or a carbohydrate-free diet. The objective of the study was to investigate i) the biochemical basis for the accumulation of sucrase during migration and differentiation of the enterocyte, leading to changes in distribution of activity of sucrase along the villus, and ii) the mechanism for the adaptation of sucrase activity to the amount of dietary carbohydrate. The results indicate that synthesis of sucrase is more rapid than degradation at the crypt-villus junction and in the lower part of the villus, producing a progressive accumulation of enzyme. The decreased activity at the tip of the villus is the consequence of a decided diminution of synthesis while the rate of degradation remains elevated. In rats fed a diet high in sucrose, the increased activity (3.25 times) is associated with much more rapid synthesis (2.6 times), while degradation is only slightly slower (0.8 times) than in those animals deprived of carbohydrate.