Effect of ethanol on glucose and water absorption in hamster jejunum in vivo. Methodological problems: anesthesia, nonabsorbable markers, and osmotic effect.

We studied the effect of ethanol on glucose and water absorption in vivo. In preliminary experiments, using sodium amytal anesthesia, we found that control animals, whose jejunal segment was perfused without ethanol, required more anesthetic agent than those perfused with ethanol. Thus, to allow for unbiased comparison of the absorption data between the two groups of animals, all absorption studies were carried out on conscious restrained hamsters. We found that ethanol did not influence the permeability of the jejunum to polyethylene glycol (PEG) and meglumine diatrizoate. In addition, ethanol did not influence the time required for the onset of steady-state absorption. Using both the gravimetric and the electrical methods, we were unable to show any measurable osmotic pressure exerted by ethanol (150-1050 mM) on the hamster jejunum. In the absorption studies we found that perfusion of the hamster jejunum with five increasing concentration of ethanol (450-1050 mM) appeared to cause a concentration-dependent depression in steady-state glucose transport. Water transport was depressed only when 4.8% (1050 mM) ethanol was perfused.