Digestion and absorption of maltose in rats infected by the nematode Nippostrongylus brasiliensis

Abstract

It was reported previously that there was a marked loss of activity of maltase isolated from the mucosa or brush borders of the epithelial cells of the small intestine of rats infected with the nematode, Nippostrongylus brasiliensis, but it was not known whether maltose digestion was affected in vivo. There was little loss of efficiency when digestion and absorption of maltose were measured in the intact rat, except in the severely affected animals in which the rate of digestion was reduced and the luminal retention of glucose increased in the earlier stages of absorption of the test meal. In these animals failure of function was more apparent in the distal two-thirds of the small intestine than in the proximal one-third. These effects tended to disappear as absorption progressed. It was only in very severely affected rats that appreciable amounts of maltose and glucose passed into the large bowel. There was no change in the rate of gastric emptying, but the meal passed more slowly through the upper two-thirds of the small intestine and emptied more rapidly from the distal ileum, particularly in the earlier stages of digestion and in the severely affected rats.