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Neonatal gastrointestinal growth and function: are they regulated by composition of feeds?

The effects of natural suckling versus a cow's milk formula on gastrointestinal growth and mucosal function were measured in newborn guinea pigs during the first 8 days of postnatal life. Comparable growth was achieved between the two groups. Both feeds appeared to be a stimulus for the growth of the gastrointestinal tract and expression of disaccharidases, but not for mucosal growth. Formula feeding was associated with a diminished rate of lactase expression and an enhanced rate of maltase and sucrase expression suggesting that the effect of natural suckling is regulatory, acting to delay expression of an inherent ontogenic programme uncovered by formula feeding. These finding in the precocial guinea pig contrast with those in the altricial rat, and have implications for our understanding of the regulation of gastrointestinal development and effects of formula feeds, in other species, including man.

Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena↗

Effect of early nutrient restriction on broiler chickens. 1. Performance and development of the gastrointestinal tract.

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of early nutrient restriction on performance and development of the gastrointestinal tract of broiler chickens. Four hundred male broiler (Ross x Ross) chicks raised in floor pens were assigned to two treatment groups. One group was given ad libitum access to feed from 1 to 48 d of age. The second group was feed restricted from 7 to 14 d of age to an energy intake of 1.5 x BW.67 kcal ME/d and then given ad libitum access to feed from 14 to 48 d. Body weight and feed intake were determined weekly. At 49 d of age, birds were processed for carcass yield, abdominal fat pad measurement, and body composition analysis. Broilers were also sampled at 7, 14, 21, and 41 d of age for proventriculus, gizzard, small intestine (duodenum, jejunum, and ileum), pancreas, and liver weights and for intestinal length measurements. Total DNA, protein:DNA, and RNA:DNA ratios of livers and jejuna were determined as indexes of changes in cell size and number. Feed-restricted broilers failed to catch up to the Control birds in BW at 48 d of age but were superior (P < .01) in overall feed efficiency. No treatment effects were observed on breast meat yields or abdominal fat. Moreover, percentage carcass fat, crude protein, ash, and dry matter were not affected by restricted feeding. Body weight and weights of gastrointestinal organs were reduced (P < .01) by feed restriction at 14 d of age. Restricted feeding, however, did not decrease the relative weights of organs, except for liver. Feed restriction also resulted in a reduction (P < .01) of liver cell number and size and a decrease in jejunum cell number. All organs recovered normal weight on refeeding, and all cellular constituent ratios (e.g., RNA:DNA, RNA:protein, and protein:DNA) returned to normal by 41 d of age. Absolute and relative weights of supply organs (e.g., proventriculus, gizzard, small intestine, liver, and pancreas) were less affected by feed restriction and responded more quickly to refeeding than the whole body.

Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena↗

Food intake after intragastric meals of short-, medium, or long-chain triglyceride.

Food-deprived Sprague-Dawley rats were given equicaloric intragastric infusions of mixed meals consisting largely of short- (SCT), medium- (MCT), or long-chain triglyceride (LCT). When animals were allowed to feed 20 min after infusion, there was an immediate reduction of food intake that was sustained over the 2 hr feeding period. During the first hour of feeding, the SCT, which is digested and absorbed more rapidly than the MCT or the LCT, was more effective per calorie in reducing food intake than these longer-chain triglycerides. However, during the second hour, cumulative intakes after the different triglyceride infusions were not significantly different. Equicaloric infusions of the MCT and the LCT resulted in equivalent reductions of food intake at all times. The satiety effects of these two triglycerides appear to be related to their caloric properties rather than to chain length. Since the LCT reduced food intake before the absorbed fat could have entered the blood to stimulate satiety signals, this satiety effect may be mediated by a gastroenteric signal. None of the triglyceride infusions resulted in a conditioned taste aversion suggesting that food intake was reduced through normal satiety rather than through discomfort.

Animals↗

Utilization of bamboo by the giant panda.

Two giant pandas were used to assess the utilization of bamboo as a feedstuff. Three 1-week-long digestion trials were conducted during which feed intake and fecal output were recorded. Passage of digesta was measured from both fluid and particulate markers administered at feeding. Results indicate that the giant panda, although highly specialized for the consumption of bamboo, is a very inefficient digester of bamboo. The pandas consumed up to 6% of body weight in dry matter per day, with bamboo dry matter digestibility averaging less than 20%. Apparent digestion coefficients for the structural carbohydrates of bamboo (27% for hemicellulose and 8% for cellulose) indicate that, unlike most herbivores, pandas do not rely heavily on the microbial degradation of plant material to fulfill their nutritional requirements. Additionally, the passage of digesta through the gastrointestinal tract of the panda was extremely rapid, with complete clearance of markers in less than 12 hours. The giant panda seems to have specialized to a feed source high in plant fiber without extensive modification of the digestive tract by selectivity in feeding, effective mastication, ingestion of large quantities, digestion of cellular contents rather than cell walls and rapid fecal excretion of the undigested residue.

Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena↗

Prostaglandins and gastrointestinal cytoprotection.

One of the important and interesting effects of prostaglandins in the gastrointestinal tract is cytoprotection: protection of the gastrointestinal mucosa against nonspecific injuries (physical, chemical, drugs, etc.). The characteristic features of cytoprotection, the possible mechanism of protection and the theoretical and clinical perspectives of prostaglandins and their analogues are discussed.

Animals↗

The influence of food intake on portal blood flow and heat production in the digestive tract of sheep.

1. Measurements were made of portal blood flow, heat production and oxygen consumption in the digestive tract of sheep either fasted or given the following diets: chopped, dried grass, pelleted, dried grass; chopped, dried lucerne; pelleted, dried lucerne, or a pelleted barley diet. 2. For sheep that had been fasted for 48 h, portal blood flow was 1.84 l/min, total visceral heat production was 62.3 kJ/kg body-weight 0.75 per 24 h and aerobic heat production, estimated from oxygen consumption, was 62.1 kJ/kg body-weight 0.75 per 24 h. 3. Portal blood flow was markedly influenced by food intake, increasing from 1.8 l/min for starved sheep to 2.4 and 4 l/min for sheep feed at maintenance and 2.5 times maintenance levels of intake respectively. Variations in the quality and physical form of the diets had no apparent effect on portal blood flow. 4. There was a curvilinear relationship between total heat production in the gut and metabolizable energy (ME) intake. The increase obtained for levels of intake below maintenance was greatest with lucerne diets, and least with pelleted, dried grass or pelleted barley diets. Above maintenance levels of intake the rate of increase in heat production, with all diets, was about 150 kJ/MJ ME intake. 5. The heat of fermentation, estimated from the difference between total visceral metabolism and the aerobic metabolism of the tissues of the gut wall, was 76, 60 and 22 kJ/MJ digestible energy intake for the dried grass, lucerne and barley diets respectively. 6. The contribution of fermentation heat and the aerobic metabolism of the gut to the total heat increment of feeding in sheep was assessed. It was concluded that about half the heat increment must be derived from tissues outside the digestive tract.

Aerobiosis↗

Mechanism for the inhibition of fat digestion by chitosan and for the synergistic effect of ascorbate.

We investigated the mechanism for the inhibition of fat digestion by chitosan, and the synergistic effect of ascorbate. The important inhibition characteristics of fat digestion by chitosan from observations of the ileal contents were that it dissolved in the stomach and then changed to a gelled form, entrapping fat in the intestine. The synergistic effect of ascorbate (AsA) on the inhibition of fat digestion by chitosan is thought not to be acid-dependent but due to the specificity of AsA itself, according to the data resulting from using preparations supplemented with sodium ascorbate (AsN). The mechanism for the synergistic effect is considered to be 1) viscosity reduction in the stomach, which implies that chitosan mixed with a lipid is better than chitosan alone, 2) an increase in the oil-holding capacity of the chitosan gel, and 3) the chitosan-fat gel being more flexible and less likely to leak entrapped fat in the intestinal tract.

Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena↗

Gender-specific physiology: how real is it? How important is it?

A predominantly male model of disease, and thus a tendency to restrict medical investigation to men, has led to a skewing of our perceptions of both normal human physiology and the pathophysiology of illness. Because of social and economic factors, research programs focused on aspects of women's health and disease (other than reproductive) have become more common over the past decade. The present literature review of gender-specific physiology covers the roles of gonadal hormones, especially in the nervous system; depression; the cytochrome P-450 system; the cardiovascular system, the immune system; saliva; and the gastrointestinal tract. All in all, there are revealed important differences, and some surprising similarities, between the genders in disease conditions and drug responses.

Cardiovascular Diseases↗

Physicochemical properties and physiological effects of the (1----3)(1----4)-beta-D-glucan from oats.

In summary, despite the many uncertainties regarding mode of action, these results have established that the soluble dietary fibre from oats, mainly (1----3)(1----4)-beta-D-glucan, is physiologically active in a fashion similar to guar gum. Extraction processes reduce the molecular size of the beta-glucan relative to the native cell wall polymer, and the product was of lower viscosity than a guar gum used for comparison, but this did not appear to affect either in vivo or in vitro activity under the conditions used. There remains a need to develop a clearer picture of the relationship, if any, of viscosity to activity, through dose response studies with products of different viscosity.

Animals↗