Chick embryo intestine in culture: influence of insulin and other hormones on sucrase, maltase, and alkaline phosphatase.

The development of alkaline phosphatase, maltase, and sucrase activities in the duodenum of the chick embryo was followed in organ culture in chemically defined medium; 14-day duodenum was used in most experiments, with comparisons being made with 18-day tissue. As has been previously shown for the other enzymes, sucrase activity also rises at an accelerated rate in vitro. Since chick sucrase has maltase activity, its increase appears to account for the spontaneous rise of maltase activity; the form of maltase devoid of sucrase activity seems not to be accelerated. Sucrase, sucrase-free maltase, and alkaline phosphatase are all elevated by the addition of insulin to the medium. Intestinal sucrase is well known to be responsive to hydrocortisone, but it has now been found to be unresponsive to thyroxine, except that its dissociation from the brush border is increased at hormone concentrations above 1 nM. Insulin and thyroxine act synergistically on alkaline phosphatase, but the addition of hydrocortisone diminishes the effect of the other two. With sucrase, insulin and hydrocortisone have a synergistic effect which is intensified by addition of thyroxine. The previously demonstrated influence of hydrocortisone on maltase is accounted for by the maltase activity of sucrase. In combination, however, hydrocortisone and thyroxine elevated maltase much more strongly than sucrase, and the highest maltase levels were attained when all three hormones were present.