Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 28, 2026
The Isolation of Flowing Mesenteric Lymph in Mice to Quantify In Vivo Kinetics of Dietary Lipid Absorption and Chylomicron Secretion
Published on: November 30, 2022
A protocol for noninvasive quantification of dietary fat absorption in mice
Alvin P Chan1, Kelsey E Jarrett2, Rochelle W Lai2
1Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Department of Pediatrics, Mattel Children's Hospital, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
None:
Dietary fat absorption is a key determinant of energy balance, yet standard techniques to measure fat absorption are often invasive or challenging. Here, we present a protocol to non-invasively quantify intestinal fat absorption in mice during physiological feeding. We describe steps for preparing a diet containing a nonabsorbable lipid tracer and calculating fat absorption from fecal samples using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), alongside complementary approaches for measuring fecal energy loss by oxygen bomb calorimetry and fecal fatty acid composition by GC-MS. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Chan et al.1.
