title: Colonic cell growth and mucin degradation in rats fed diets containing various levels of beta-carotene with and without dietary agar.
abstract: 1. To either an agar-containing diet or an agar-free diet, 0, 0.3 and 2.0 mg/100 g of beta-carotene were incorporated and fed to groups of five rats for 28 days. 2. Weight gain and food consumption of rats fed different dietary groups did not show a significant difference (P > 0.05). 3. Colon weight, colonic mucosal DNA and RNA were generally higher in rats fed agar diets than rats fed agar-free diets at either beta-carotene supplementation level. 4. Mucinase activity was higher (P < 0.05) in rats fed the agar diet than in rats fed an agar-free diet without beta-carotene. However, the difference was not observed (P > 0.05) when beta-carotene was incorporated. 5. These data suggest that colonic mucin degradation in rats fed an agar diet decreased when the dietary beta-carotene inclusion level increased.
authors.affiliation: Department of Marine Food Science, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, R.O.C.
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Hwa
authors.forename: S Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Shiau
mesh_terms: D000362:Agar / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D002338:Carotenoids / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002455:Cell Division / Q000502:physiology; D003106:Colon / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis; D004032:Diet; D004043:Dietary Fiber / Q000494:pharmacology*; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D009077:Mucins / Q000378:metabolism*; D011133:Polysaccharide-Lyases / Q000378:metabolism; D012313:RNA / Q000032:analysis; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D019207:beta Carotene
chemical_list: D004043:Dietary Fiber; D009077:Mucins; D019207:beta Carotene; D002338:Carotenoids; D012313:RNA; D000362:Agar; D004247:DNA; D011133:Polysaccharide-Lyases; C100002:hyaluronate lyase