title: Quantitation of major protein constituents of murine intestinal fluid.
abstract: The gastrointestinal tract is a hostile biological environment, yet not all ingested materials are destroyed. The minute differences that determine whether a substance persists or is digested, liberated, adsorbed, excreted, or taken up are still poorly understood. Most attempts to investigate the events occurring during an orogastrointestinal passage rely on simplified in vitro systems where an analyte is exposed to artificial intestinal fluids. To closely mimic the events in the gastrointestinal tract, the exact intestinal fluid composition and the in vivo concentration of its constituents must be known. The widely used lavage procedures, however, dilute the intestinal fluids to an extent that precludes recalculation to the original concentrations. Thus, we developed procedures with which undiluted murine intestinal fluid can be harvested; determined the in vivo concentrations of the digestive enzymes trypsin, chymotrypsin, and elastase and the adsorbents mucin and immunoglobulin A in small intestinal fluid of fasted and unfasted female Balb/c mice; and identified chymotrypsin and immunoglobulin A as valid endogenous dilution markers for the recalculation of aqueous lavages. With these technologies and information at hand, more reliable investigations on the fate of allergens, pathogens, food, and anthropogenic xenobiotics in the gastrointestinal tract will be possible.
authors.affiliation: Division of Mucosal Immunology, Research Center Borstel, 23845 Borstel, Germany.
authors.forename: Steffen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bade
authors.forename: Hans H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Gorris
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Koelling
authors.forename: Verena
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Olivier
authors.forename: Fabian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Reuter
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zabel
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Frey
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001671:Biochemistry / Q000379:methods*; D001826:Body Fluids / Q000378:metabolism*; D004063:Digestion; D005215:Fasting / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D007070:Immunoglobulin A / Q000378:metabolism; D007421:Intestine, Small / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D009077:Mucins / Q000378:metabolism; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases / Q000378:metabolism; D011506:Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D007507:Therapeutic Irrigation
chemical_list: D007070:Immunoglobulin A; D009077:Mucins; D011506:Proteins; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases