Unstirred water layer and age-dependent changes in rabbit jejunal D-glucose transport

The unidirectional flux of solutes into the intestinal mucosal cell is determined by passage through the microvillus membrane and the overlying unstirred water layer, UWL. An in vitro technique was employed to determine the effect of the UWL on glucose transport into the jejunum of suckling, mature, and old rabbits. When the resistance of UWL was high, the uptake from high concentrations of glucose increased as the animals grew older; this change with aging was not seen from low concentrations of glucose. When UWL resistance was minimized by stirring the bulk phase, similar amounts of glucose were absorbed from high doses, but uptake from low doses was greater in young than in old animals. Studies undertaken to determine the kinetic basis of these age-related changes showed that with increasing age i) the apparent passive permeability coefficient P of glucose fell, ii) the maximum transport rate Jdmax rose, and iii) the apparent affinity constant Km increased. These differences were not observed when the resistance of the UWL was high: P and Km were similar in suckling, mature, and old animals, and the increase in glucose uptake with age was due to the greater Jdmax. Thus the potential benefit of the high affinity, high permeability transport system of young animals may be obscured by high resistance of the UWL.