Stability and distribution of orally administered epidermal growth factor in neonatal pigs

Stability and distribution of orally administered epidermal growth factor (EGF) were examined in newborn and 5-day-old pigs. Forty-five minutes after oral administration of iodine-125 labeled EGF, 60 and 50% of the radioactivity administered were recovered from the internal organs in newborn and 5-day-old pigs, respectively. In both age groups, over 95% of the recovered radioactivity was found in the gastrointestinal tract, of which 78-86% was found in the luminal contents with the remaining found in the gastrointestinal wall. Within the gastrointestinal tract, 65-71% of radioactivity was found in the stomach, 27-30% in the proximal and mid small intestine and 3-4% was found in the distal part of the small intestine. There were no significant differences in the overall distribution of orally administered radioactivity between two age groups. Based on liquid chromatography and trichloroacetic acid precipitation, a substantial amount of EGF recovered from the luminal contents (63-86%) and the gastrointestinal wall (42-81%) remained "intact". The receptor binding ability of the EGF recovered from the gastric contents was 96-102% comparable to the native EGF tracer. The receptor binding ability remained high (40-58%) in the proximal small intestinal lumen and it decreased to 15% in the distal small intestinal lumen in newborn pigs. In 5-day-old pigs, EGF recovered from the small intestinal contents had 5 to 24% receptor binding ability when compared with native EGF tracer. The receptor binding ability of the EGF recovered from all other organs was below 5% with an exception of the gastric wall, from which recovered EGF retained 9 to 26% receptor binding ability. These results indicate that most of orally ingested EGF remained in the gastrointestinal tract in neonatal pigs 45 min after oral ingestion, and significant amount of the ingested EGF remained biologically active. It suggests that milk-borne EGF can survive in the gastrointestinal tract and may play a role in regulating gut development in neonatal animals.