The location of carbohydrases in the digestive tract of the pig

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Abstract
The carbohydrase activities of homogenates prepared from mucosa of the stomach, small intestine and colon, and from pancreatic tissue, of an adult pig were studied. The preparation from the stomach contained no carbohydrases except a very weak amylase activity, which may have been caused by contamination with saliva from the gastric contents. The preparations from the small intestine had powerful di-saccharidase activities which showed different locations along the small intestine: one group of activities (invertase, maltase and isomaltase) was mainly localized in the distal part of the small intestine, and another group (trehalase, lactase and cellobiase) was localized in the proximal part. This may indicate that different disaccharides are absorbed in different parts of the small intestine. The preparation from the small intestine also had amylase activity, which, however, was low compared with that of the pancreas homogenate and may have been due to contamination with pancreatic juice. Dextranase activity was present in the preparations from the small intestine, but not in those from the pancreas. The dextranase activity is thus caused by a specific enzyme which has its origin in the small intestinal mucosa. The preparation from the colon also had carbohydrase activities, although these activities were weak compared with those of the small intestinal mucosa. The preparation from the pancreas had very powerful amylase activity, and the pancreas seems to be the main source of the amylase of the intestinal contents. This preparation also had weak maltase activity. The preparation from the pancreas had no other disaccharidase activities.

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