USE OF DIETARY-RESTRICTED RAT INTESTINE FOR ACTIVE TRANSPORT STUDIES

1. The effect of dietary restriction (sufficient to produce a loss of about 32% of initial body weight) on intestinal active transport has been studied in the rat by the use of sacs of everted mid‐small intestine. Eight D‐sugars, four L‐sugars and two D‐amino acids were employed. 2. Dietary restriction enhanced the normally occurring active transport of D‐galactose, 3‐O‐methyl‐D‐glucose and D‐methionine. In addition, sacs of dietary‐restricted small intestine were able to concentrate in the serosal fluid D‐fucose, D‐xylose and D‐histidine, which sacs of normal rat intestine could not do. The final (1 hr) serosal/mucosal concentration ratios produced for these actively transported substances were independent of net water movement. 3. Sugars which were not concentrated in the serosal fluid of sacs of fully fed or dietary‐restricted intestine were D‐arabinose, D‐fructose, D‐glucosamine, D‐mannose, L‐arabinose, L‐fucose, L‐sorbose and L‐xylose. 4. The characteristics of D‐fucose and D‐xylose active transport suggest that they are transported by the mechanism which actively transports D‐glucose. The comparatively low content of D‐glucose in dietary‐restricted intestine, compared with fully fed intestine, may be part of the explanation for observable active transport of D‐fucose and D‐xylose by dietary‐restricted sacs. 5. Thinning of the intestinal wall is believed not to be the cause of the enhanced active transport found during dietary restriction. 6. The results show that dietary‐restricted rat small intestine may, at times, be more useful than fully fed rat small intestine in the study of intestinal active transport. © 1969 The Physiological Society