title: Retention of calcium in intestinal wall of the rabbit by treatment with a glucocorticoid.
abstract: In this work, consideration was given to the possibility that increased retention of Ca in the intestinal wall may have resulted in the glucocorticoid-treated animal. Rabbits were treated with pharmacological doses of either dexamethasone, estrogen, or progesterone during 1 wk. Two milliliters of solution containing Ca (plus Mg, K, and Na) were infused into a double-ligated (4 cm apart) gut loop (jejunum). In addition, an adjacent loop was double ligated but received no infusion. Uterine horns were treated in the same way as the gut and were used as controls to test for organ specificity. After the organs were infused with the calcium solution, they were returned into the abdominal cavity for a 4-h period. Dexamethasone treatment was given to a different group of rabbits in which neither surgery was performed nor mineral solution was infused into the lumen of the intestine; in this experiment calcium concentrations were measured in the mucosa, submucosa, and serosa layer obtained from the duodenum, midjejunum, and distal jejunum. In rabbits subjected to surgery, the concentration of Ca in the whole wall of the intestine of the dexamethasone-treated rabbits (45.4 +/- 2.6 mM/kg dry tissue) was twice as large as in controls (22.6 +/- 3.2 mM/kg dry tissue) (P less than 0.05). Mg concentrations were moderately (17%) increased (P less than 0.05). In the group of rabbits receiving dexamethasone but not subjected to surgery, the concentration of Ca in the duodenum (mucosa, submucosa, and whole wall), midjejunum (whole wall), and distal jejunum (submucosa) was significantly (P less than 0.05) elevated as compared with controls. In these rabbits, the duodenum was the most affected segment of the intestine. The effect of dexamethasone was both organ and steroid specific but not mineral specific. This result suggests that one of the effects of the glucocorticoid (dexamethasone) treatment on the intestinal wall was to increase the retention of Ca.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism*; D003907:Dexamethasone / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004386:Duodenum / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D004958:Estradiol / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D007583:Jejunum / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D007700:Kinetics; D008274:Magnesium / Q000378:metabolism; D011188:Potassium / Q000378:metabolism; D011374:Progesterone / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011817:Rabbits; D012964:Sodium / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D011374:Progesterone; D004958:Estradiol; D003907:Dexamethasone; D012964:Sodium; D008274:Magnesium; D011188:Potassium; D002118:Calcium