Alanine enhances jejunal sodium absorption in the presence of glucose: studies in piglet viral diarrhea.

We measured the response of jejunal sodium (Na) absorption to neutral amino acid (L-alanine) and to dipeptides (L-alanyl-L-alanine, glycylsarcosine) in normal piglets and in piglets with acute viral diarrhea after experimental infection with transmissible gastroenteritis (TGE) virus. In the TGE jejunum villi were blunted, crypts were deepened, and the epithelium was composed of relatively undifferentiated cells with reduced disaccharidase, decreased sodium-potassium-stimulated ATPase, and elevated thymidine kinase activities. The response of Na absorption to a maximal concentration of L-alanine (20 mM) or D-glucose (30 mM) was significantly blunted in TGE jejunum in Ussing chambers. However, the addition of L-alanine together with D-glucose caused a significantly greater increment of Na absorption than either L-alanine or D-glucose alone in control and TGE tissue. The effect of Na absorption of the dipeptide L-alanyl-L-alanine (10 mM), which was rapidly hydrolyzed by control and TGE mucosa, was similar to that of L-alanine (20 mM), while glycylsarcosine, a poorly hydrolyzed dipeptide, did not change net Na absorption in the jejunum. Our data support the concept of separate carrier systems for neutral amino acid and hexose in the crypt-type intestinal epithelium characterizing viral enteritis. We speculate that a sodium-cotransporting amino acid, if added to oral glucose-electrolyte solutions, could benefit oral rehydration therapy in acute viral diarrhea; neither of the dipeptides tested here can be expected to enhance absorption to any greater extent than its constituent amino acids.