Electron-microscopic Studies of the Jejunal Epithelium from Neonatal Pigs Fed Different Diets

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Abstract
Closure, the time after which neonatal intestinal epithelium can no longer absorb macromolecules, occurs about 36 hours after birth in the piglet. The precise time of closure is diet-dependent. The purpose of this investigation was to determine, using electron microscopy, whether simple and complex diets known to effect closure would also effect surface membrane activity (pinocytosis) in the immature piglet's gut epithelium. Diets known to induce closure (colostrum and sugar solution) stimulated intense pinocytotic activity in gut epithelium from premature or neonatal piglets. Conversely, those regimens known to have little effect on closure (salt solution or unfed pigs) induced little or no pinocytotic activity in premature or neonatal piglets. There was no pinocytotic activity in pig gut epithelium closed with colostrum or treated with the metabolic inhibitor, 6-dinitro-o-cresol.