DUODENOGASTRIC REFLUX OF INTESTINAL INFUSIONS IN RATS IS VOLUME-DEPENDENT

Experiments employing infusions of nutrients into the gastrointestinal tract commonly deliver large volumes of solutions without evaluating the possibility that reflux of the infusate to more orad sites may occ ur. To assess this possibility for one conventional paradigm, rats wit h gastric fistulas and intestinal catheters were infused intraduodenal ly (4.0 to 5.0 cm distal to pylorus) in association with a meal. Infus ions of 0.0 ml to 15.0 ml of 3% glucose and a dye marker or 0.9% salin e containing a dye marker were delivered at 1 ml/min, and stomach cont ents were assayed for the infusates. All three probes were detected in stomach contents. The glucose marker proved the most sensitive of the three and indicated that duodenogastric reflux occurred in a dose-dep endent manner with infusions >2.5 ml. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited