title: Amino acid metabolism in the portal-drained viscera of young pigs: effects of dietary supplementation with chitosan and pea hull.
abstract: Recent studies indicate extensive catabolism of amino acids (AA) by the portal-drained viscera (PDV) of pigs and humans. Because of ethical concerns over invasive surgical procedures on infants or adults, in vivo investigations are often performed with the pig which is both an agriculturally important livestock species and a widely used animal model for nutritional and physiological studies in humans. Here, we described a new technique for implanting chronic catheters into the portal vein, ileal mesenteric vein, and carotid artery to study AA metabolism in the PDV of young pigs. This method allowed for the reduction of surgery time by 1 h and measurements of the entry of dietary AA into the portal circulation. Using such an approach, we found that dietary supplementation with 100 mg/kg chitosan (a prebiotic and a polysaccharide not digested by animal cells) reduced oxygen consumption, as well as the net absorption of dietary AA into the portal vein, thereby enhancing their bioavailability for extraintestinal tissues. In contrast, opposite results were obtained with dietary supplementation of 12% pea-hull (containing 95% of fermentable nonstarch polysaccharide). Thus, this improved technique is useful to quantify in vivo absorption and metabolism of dietary AA in young pigs.
authors.affiliation: Hunan Engineering and Research Center of Animal and Poultry Science, Key Laboratory for Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Region, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hunan, 410125, China. yinyulong@isa.ac.cn
authors.forename: Yulong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Ruilin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Tiejun
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ruan
authors.forename: Mingyong
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Zeyuan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: Yongqing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: Guoyao
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000032:analysis; D048271:Chitosan / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D008297:Male; D010101:Oxygen Consumption; D018532:Pisum sativum / Q000737:chemistry*; D013552:Swine / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D001786:Blood Glucose; D048271:Chitosan