In Burmese pythons fasting and feeding cause dramatic regulation of gastric acid production and intestinal nutrient uptake. Predictably, other components of their gastrointestinal tract are similarly regulated with each meal. We therefore assessed the matched regulation of gastrointestinal performance by comparing the postprandial activities and capacities of gastric (pepsin), pancreatic (amyla...

d-psicose is one of the rare sugars present in small quantities in commercial carbohydrates and agricultural products. In this study, we investigated the effects of d-psicose on the activities of alpha-amylases and alpha-glucosidases in vitro, and evaluated the effects of d-psicose on the in vivo postprandial glycemic response using rats. In the in vitro study, d-psicose potently inhibited the ...

We explored possible diet-related specializations in the digestive tract of stomachless Wshes by summarizing the diets, verifying the absence of a stomach, and comparing gut lengths, microvilli surface areas, and activities of Wve digestive enzymes in four taxa of silversides from southern California coastal waters. For the comparisons, we examined these gut features in Atherinops aVinis from b...

(1) We investigated the trophic effect of pectin on the intestinal mucosa injured by formyl methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (FMLP), a chemoattractant produced by the intestinal bacterial flora. (2) We first demonstrated that oral administration of FMLP for 7 days reduced the disaccharidase activities and increased the permeability, measured by fluorescein-isothiocyanate-conjugated dextran, of ra...

We described a partitioned enzyme-sensor system, which incorporates an immoblized substrate and three or more discrete immobilized enzymes. This instrument measures alpha-amylase activity by passing the solution containing alpha-amylase over a column packed with immobilized starch. The resulting oligosaccharides are successively exposed to a column or columns containing immobolized glucose oxid...

The specific effect of dietary sugars on jejunal disaccharidase activity in seven normal nonfasted male volunteers was studied. The sugars tested were sucrose, maltose, lactose, glucose, fructose, and galactose. Comparisons were made of the effects of each sugar in an isocaloric liquid diet. In all subjects, sucrose feeding, as compared to glucose feeding, significantly increased jejunal sucras...

Cyanidin and its glycosides are naturally dietary pigments which have been indicated as promising candidates to have potential benefits to humans, especially in the prevention and treatment of diabetes mellitus. We investigated the structure activity relationships of cyanidin and its glycosides to inhibit intestinal α-glucosidases and pancreatic α-amylase in vitro. The results found that cyanid...

Endoscopic duodenal biopsy specimens from 100 predominantly adult Caucasian patients under investigation for gastrointestinal symptoms were used to establish reference ranges for lactase, sucrase, and maltase in the duodenum. Duodenal and jejunal disaccharidase values were compared and the association between disaccharidase activity and morphology in the duodenum was examined. Mean lactase acti...

Experiments were conducted, using a nonspecific lipid transfer protein, to vary the cholesterol/phospholipid molar ratio of rat proximal small intestinal microvillus membranes in order to assess the possible role of cholesterol in modulating enzymatic activities of this plasma membrane. Cholesterol/phospholipid molar ratios from 0.71 to 1.30 were produced from a normal value of 1.05 by incubati...

A technique for the isolation of intact brush borders from rabbit renal cortex was evaluated. The procedure was monitored by phase and electron microscopy and marker enzymes, i.e. ATP:NMN adenylyl transferase, nuclear; cytochrome oxidase, mitochondrial; beta-glucuronidase, lysosomal; and glucose-6-Pase, microsomal; and indicated an essentially pure preparation of brush borders. The disaccharida...