Pancreatic and intestinal enzyme activities in rats in response to balanced and unbalanced plant diets

To simulate the effects of nutritionally adequate and inadequate vegetarian diets, rats were fed, for 28 days, an isonitrogenous, isocaloric, amino acid unbalanced cereal diet (CD) deficient in lysine and tryptophan or a balanced cereal-legume diet (CLD). The impact of these diets on enzymes responsible for digestion of proteins and carbohydrates were measured. Neither experimental diet significantly affected the animal's final weight or feed consumption in comparison with controls fed a standard mixed diet from plant and animal sources. However, during the first three weeks, the weight gain of rats fed the CD was significantly lower (p < 0.01; p < 0.05) than that of the controls. CD fed rats also had a higher feed efficiency ratio (p < 0.05), demonstrating increased feed consumption per unit of body weight. They also had decreased pancreatic alpha-amylase activity (p < 0.05), serum phytolytic and zoolytic alpha-amylase activity (p < 0.05) and serum protein level (p < 0.05) than the controls. Activity of pancreatic trypsin and intestinal enzymes (sucrase, maltase, aminopeptidase N) were the same as in the controls. In rats fed CLD, growth, food consumption, and enzyme activities did not change, however serum protein and glucose levels were higher (p < 0.025; p < 0.005) than in the controls. It is hypothesized that decrease in alpha-amylase activity was mostly related to the tryptophan deficiency in the CD because this enzyme contains the highest amount of tryptophan units among all tested enzymes.