Absorption kinetics of some carbohydrates in conscious pigs

Abstract

1. Concentrations of reducing sugars, glucose, fructose and lactic acid in blood obtained from arterial and portal catheters were measured for periods of 8–24 h in twenty-three unanaesthetized pigs (mean body-weight 50 kg). From 6 to 8 d after implantation of catheters, the animals received experimental meals containing different levels (400, 800, 1200, 1600 g respectively) of different sugars (glucose ten meals, sucrose eighteen meals, lactose nine meals, maize starch sixteen meals) as well as a protein–mineral–vitamin premix.2. After each meal the reducing sugars appeared in the portal blood in successive waves. The porto-arterial differences in the concentration of reducing sugars, representing the real appearance of sugar-hydrolysis products in the animal, varied greatly according to the sugar ingested and its level of intake. For each level of intake, these differences were larger, but of shorter duration, for glucose and sucrose than for maize starch. For these three carbohydrates, the higher the level of ingestion, the larger and the more persistent the porto-arterial differences. Lactose represented a special case, as the porto-arterial differences of reducing sugars were always much lower than those obtained with the other sugars and they did not vary with the level of intake.3. Our findings show that the products formed by feeding glucose and sucrose appear more rapidly in the portal blood than those formed by feeding lactose. Accordingly, the length of time of digestion of glucose and sucrose is shorter than that of maize starch and lactose.