INTESTINAL MORPHOLOGY AND TRANSPORT AFTER ILEAL RESECTION IN RAT IS MODIFIED BY DIETARY FATTY-ACIDS

The authors tested the hypothesis that the intestinal morphology and u ptake of nutrients after resection of the distal half of the small int estine of rats responds to alterations in the dietary content of satur ated (SFA) and polyunsaturated (PUFA) fatty acids. Adult female Spragu e-Dawley rats were subjected to a sham operation or to the surgical re section of the distal half of the small intestine, leaving the ileocec al valve intact. The animals were fed chow for 3 weeks, then either ch ow or isocaloric semisynthetic SFA or PUFA diets for a further 2 weeks . Food consumption, weight gain and jejunal mucosal surface area were unchanged after deal resection. A microdensitometric autoradiographic technique was used to examine the distribution of H-3-leucine and H-3- lysine along the villus: approximately 70% of uptake occurred in the u pper 30% of the enterocytes of the villus in chow-fed rats, and this p ortion was unchanged by ileal resection. The jejunal uptake of 40 mM o f glucose, observed in vitro, was twice as high in animals that had un dergone resection and were fed SFA than in those fed PUFA. In summary, (1) there is a separation between the adaptation of intestinal transp ort function and dynamic/static morphology after ileal resection, and (2) glucose uptake after ileal resection is enhanced by SFA in the die t and is not explained by any changes in the animals' food intake, wei ght gain or intestinal morphology.