Absence of a cAMP-mediated antiabsorptive effect in an undifferentiated jejunal epithelium

In the relatively undifferentiated jejunal mucosa occurring in piglet viral enteritis, we measured the response of transepithelial Na+ and Cl- fluxes in vitro to raised intracellular adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) levels. At the acute 40-h stage of transmissible gastroenteritis (TGE), luminal membrane markers, sucrase and lactase, and a basolateral jejunal epithelial membrane marker Na+-K+-ATPase, were significantly decreased in activity, while a proliferative marker, thymidine kinase, was significantly enriched; these enzyme characteristics are typical of enterocytes isolated from crypts of other species. As expected, control piglet jejunum in short-circuited Ussing chambers after theophylline (10 mM) developed significant net secretory Na and Cl fluxes primarily due to significant antiabsorptive effects (delta JNa m----s = 3.48 +/- 0.52, delta JCl m----s = 2.59 +/- 0.28). Furosemide (10(-4) M), an inhibitor of electroneutral NaCl cotransport, produced antiabsorptive effects (delta JNa m----s = 2.53 +/- 0.31, delta JCl m----s = 2.58 +/- 0.28) in control jejunum that were not significantly different from those seen in response to theophylline. TGE jejunum, however, responded to theophylline not by an antiabsorptive effect but by significant electrogenic Cl- secretion (delta JCl s----m = 1.59 +/- 0.48); furosemide had no effect on ion fluxes in TGE tissue. Control and TGE jejunal mucosal homogenates did not differ in their basal or theophylline-stimulated levels of cAMP. We conclude that the relatively undifferentiated small intestine occurring in acute TGE does not generate either a cAMP-mediated antiabsorptive effect or a furosemide-mediated antiabsorptive effect.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)