INTESTINAL PERFUSION OF DIETARY LEVELS OF ALUMINUM - ASSOCIATION WITHTHE MUCOSA

An aluminium (93 mu M) sulphate solution freshly adjusted to pH 7.0 wa s perfused through the rat small bowel to mimic the reported physiolog ical conditions that follow dietary aluminium ingestion. One third of this aluminium was taken up from the perfusate, but > 90% of this was then recovered from the intestinal mucus/mucosa and most (> 70%) from the distal third of the small bowel. The fresh perfusate was shown by ultrafiltration to contain largely particulate/colloidal aluminium-hyd roxide, and this probably adhered to intestinal mucus which may be an important barrier to the gastrointestinal absorption of aluminium.