Ethanol inhibition of glucose absorption in isolated, perfused small bowel of rats

There is evidence for both humans and rats that malnutrition frequently occurs when ethanol is chronically ingested. Small bowel 14C-labelled glucose absorption was measured with an ex vivo system in which the small bowel of the rat was surgically removed and then arterially perfused with an artificial medium. Glucose absorption for a control group of seven rats was 248 +/- 8 microM/min/gm dry weight of small bowel (mean +/- SEM). This was significantly greater than the value 112 +/- 12 microM/min/gm dry weight (P less than 0.005) for a group of five rats in which a competitive inhibitor of glucose absorption, phlorizin (0.2 mM), was added to the bowel lumen. In the presence of 3% ethanol within the gut lumen of five rats, glucose absorption was also reduced (to 131 +/- 12 microM/min/gm dry weight) compared to absorption in the control group (P less than 0.005). The calculated amount of glucose absorbed was corrected for metabolism to lactate and carbon dioxide. We conclude that both phlorizin and ethanol inhibit glucose absorption in the isolated and perfused small bowel of rats and that probably at least part of the malnutrition in ethanol-fed rats is due to glucose malabsorption.