EFFECT OF FASTING AND REFEEDING ON SMALL INTESTINAL ADAPTATION IN THE RAT

  • 1 January 1985
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 9  (11) , 790-796
Abstract
A chronological study was carried out on 50 male Wistar rats (350 g) to determine the effects of 3 days of fasting and 16 h to 9 days of refeeding on the morphology of jejunal and ileal mucosa (villus, crypt and enterocyte heights; number of mitosis), on some aspects of their functional adaptation (sucrase, maltase, protein) and on nitrogen and lipid absorptions. Three days of fasting resulted in weight loss (12 p. 100), in a jejunal mucosa atrophy (villus height: 376 .+-. 18 vs. 492 .+-. 4 .mu.m in controls; enterocyte height: 31 .+-. 2 vs. 41 .+-. 0.3 .mu.m in controls) and a decrease in disaccharidases activities (sucrase: 927 .+-. 90 vs. 3,363 .+-. 21 mU/10 cm length in controls). No change in ileal mucosa morphometry was noticed. Ad libitum refeeding caused a rapid and progressive weight gain, a jejunal morphometric regrowth identical to control values at 16 h (villus height: 521 .+-. 20, enterocyte height 42 .+-. 0.9 .mu.m), and maximum at 40 h of refeeding (villus height: 601 .+-. 5 .mu.m). Disaccharidases adaptation was delayed, with a maximum at 64 h of refeeding (sucrase: 3,524 .+-. 56 mU/10 cm length). Despite a 30 p. 100 increase of food consumption over the whole study (45 p. 100 during the first 16 h of refeeding), nitrogen and lipid absorption coefficients remained identical to those found in controls with an increased nitrogen balance of 70 p. 100 at 16 h and 54 p. 100 at 40 h refeeding, as compared to controls. This simple and reproducible animal experimental model appears to be appropriate for the study of the influence and mode of action of foods on functional and morphological adaptation of the small intestine.

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