Absorption in the isolated bowel segment.

An isolated bowel segment (IBS) is a viable mesenteric segment of intestine. This study was undertaken to investigate the effects of mesenteric vascular and neural supply on intestinal absorption. Ten rats were used for leucine absorption and another 10 for glucose absorption experiments. L-leucine, 12 ml of 15.0 mM/L, or 3.0 mM/L of D-glucose solution were recirculated through the IBS (n = 5) and rat jejunum that underwent sham operation (n = 5) at 2.56 ml/min for 90 min. Absorption was expressed as millimoles of leucine or glucose per gram of mucosal protein. The Student's t test was used for statistical analysis; a p < or = 0.05 was considered significant. The net absorption of L-leucine was 36.20 +/- 3.31 mM/g of mucosal protein in the IBS and 15.52 +/- 1.48 mM/g of mucosal protein in the control group (p < 0.001). The net absorption of D-glucose was 3.82 +/- 0.26 mM/g of mucosal protein in the experimental group and 4.34 +/- 0.31 mM/g of mucosal protein in the control group (p = 0.02). This study concludes that absorption of leucine and glucose in the IBS is preserved after mesenteric division.