Intestinal perfusion in vivo for the study of absorptive processes

1. Intestinal absorption can be studied by in vitro and in vivo techniques. Among the in vivo ones, intestinal perfusion is the one more employed. 2. Intestinal perfusion could be performed by a simple perfusion of an intestinal segment or by a double perfusion of the intestine and the vascular bed simultaneously. 3. The double perfusion has the advantage of measuring the substrate appearance in the vascular circuit. 4. In this review we compare the different techniques described in the literature, paying attention to their advantages. 5. The best method is the one that maintains the animal alive throughout the experiment, because it provides information about intestinal absorption under conditions similar to the natural ones.