Intestinal transport of monosaccharide after biliary diversion in the rat

Sugar absorption is increased in rats with a bile fistula but approaches normal values with the addition of bile salt. It has therefore been suggested that bile salts have a physiological role in decreasing intestinal absorption of monosaccharides. In experiments using rats, jejunal and ileal uptake of arbutin, a glucose analogue was increased 5 days after creating a bile fistula but normal by the 10th day after operation. Bile fistula rats ate only about one third of the intake of normal rats in the first 5 days after operation. Control animals fed the same amount as the bile fistula group showed a similar increase in jejunal and ileal arbutin uptake. In both groups, on the 5th post-operative day, addition of taurocholate depressed arbutin uptake towards normal. In normal rats, taurocholate depressed arbutin uptake in the ileum but not the jejunum. These results suggest that increased monosaccharide uptake in bile fistula rats is related to semi-starvation and is not a specific effect of bile salts.