Chronic ethanol feeding and microvillus membrane glycosylation in normal and protein-malnourished rat intestine.

Ethanol feeding to rats for 40 days enhanced (p < 0.001) the activities of alkaline phosphatase, sucrase, gamma-glutamyltransferase (GTP), and p-nitrophenyl (PNP)-beta-D-galactosidase (p < 0.05) with no change in leucine amino peptidase (LAP) and PNP-beta-D-glucosidase activities in intestine compared with control rats. The activities of alkaline phosphatase, sucrase, and GTP were diminished (p < 0.01) in ethanol-fed malnourished rats. There was no change in LAP activity, but the levels of glucosidase and galactosidase were elevated under these conditions. Brush-border sialic acid, fucose, hexose, and hexosamine contents were elevated in ethanol-fed protein-deficient animals. Ethanol administration to normally fed rats elevated the membrane sialic acid and hexose contents, reduced fucose content, and had no effect on brush-border hexosamine content compared with the control group. These results are in agreement with data on lectin binding to brush borders under these conditions. Alcohol ingestion reduced the incorporation of [14C]-glucosamine into brush borders in rats maintained on an 18% protein diet but augmented the incorporation of [14C]-glucosamine and [14C]-mannose in protein-malnourished membranes. These observations suggest that nutrition status influences the sensitivity of microvillus membrane glycosylation to ethanol feeding in rat intestine.