Intermittent bolus feeding enhances vital organs growth compared with continuous feeding in neonates (258.7)

Abstract

Orogastric tube feeding provides enteral nutrition to critically ill neonates unable to ingest normally, and can be administered by intermittent bolus (INT) or continuous (CON) infusion. Recently, we showed that INT compared to CON feeding enhances lean tissue accretion by increasing muscle protein synthesis in neonates. The aim of this study was to determine if these feeding modalities affect vital organ growth. Neonatal pigs (n=6, 6‐d‐old) were fed the same diet in equivalent amounts continuously or intermittently (meal every 4h) for 21d. Arterial branched‐chain amino acid and insulin concentrations measured on the last day of feeding were greater for INT after the meal than for CON pigs (P<0.05). Protein synthesis increased by 14% in jejunum, 48% in ileum, and 22% in liver of INT compared to CON pigs (P<0.05), while for the kidneys the increase was only modest. Jejunum, ileum, liver and kidneys were 41, 36, 73 and 55% heavier for pigs in the INT as compared to the CON group (P<0.05). Phosphorylation of ribosomal protein S6 kinase were higher in ileum and liver in INT compared to CON fed pigs indicating increased translation initiation (P<0.05). The proportion of rpS8 mRNA associated with polysomes in liver was greater in the INT compared to CON fed group (P<0.05). These results suggest that intermittent feeding enhances vital organ growth by up‐regulating protein synthesis.Grant Funding Source: Supported by NIH AR444474 and USDA/ARS 6250‐51000‐055