Influence of certain indigenous gastrointestinal microorganisms on duodenal alkaline phosphatase in mice

Alkaline phosphatase activity was assayed in duodenal homogenates or extracts from adult specific pathogen-free (SPF) and germfree mice and gnotobiotic mice monoassociated with a Lactobacillus sp., a Bacteroides sp., or a coliform strain indigenous to SPF mice. Activity levels of the enzyme were much higher in the preparations from germfree mice than in those from the SPF controls. In the gnotobiotes monoassociated either with a freshly isolated Lactobacillus sp. or a Bacteroides sp., the levels of alkaline phosphatase activity were intermediate between the values for germfree and SPF mice. By contrast, in the gnotobiotes monoassociated with a coliform strain, alkaline phosphatase activity remained at high germfree levels. Butanol extracts of duodenal tissue from SPF mice, germfree mice, and exgermfree mice associated with an indigenous microflora from SPF mice (conventionalized) were subjected to acrylamide gel electrophoresis. A stain for alkaline phosphatase activity revealed three major bands in the gels prepared with extracts from SPF and conventionalized mice, but only two in the gels prepared with extracts from germfree mice. All three bands may have been present in the latter gels. One of the bands (the middle one) may have been obscured, however, by high activity in the slowest moving band. As determined by densitometric scanning, the slowest moving band had much higher activity in the preparations from germfree animals than in those from SPF or conventionalized mice. These findings suggest that the indigenous microbial flora affects not only quantitatively, but also qualitatively, the activity of alkaline phosphatases in the mouse intestinal mucosa.