Formation of the Digestive-Transport Conveyer of Carbohydrates in Rat Ontogenesis

Abstract

The absorption of free glucose and glucose released from hydrolysis of different oligosaccharides has been studied using the procedure of perfusion of the isolated segment of the small intestine of rat pups, with the simultaneous determination of activities of intestinal disaccharidases by glucoseoxidase method. It has been established that: (1) the active transport of glucose in the small intestine is sufficiently pronounced during the breast feeding and gradually decreases by the time of transition of the pups to the definitive nutrition; (2) at this period, activities of lactase and of lactase-transport complexes are rather high, with the low level of activities of maltase and of maltase-transport ensembles, or complexes; (3) during the transition to the definitive feeding, simultaneously with the lactase activity repression, the activity of the lactase-transport ensembles is reduced, and digestive-transport complexes are formed, which provide high rates of hydrolysis of carbohydrates, the main component of the food.