Maternal nutrition and development of intestinal functions: II--Effect of feeding high protein and high fat diets to lactating rats.

Effects of feeding high-protein (HP) and high-fat (HF) diets to lactating rats have been studied on the development of microvillus membrane enzymes and glycosylation in suckling rats. The activities of sucrase and lactase were significantly (P less than 0.01) decreased in the pups reared on HP fed dams. Alkaline phosphatase (AP), leucine aminopeptidase (LAP) and gamma-glutamyl-transpeptidase (gamma-GTP) activities were essentially similar in HP and pair-fed groups. Pups reared on dams fed HF-diet, revealed nearly a 20% increase in disaccharidase levels and a significant (P less than 0.05) decrease in AP activity compared to the pair-fed controls. The activities of LAP and GTP were unaffected under these conditions. Sialic acid content was unaltered, however, fucose level of the membranes was significantly reduced in pups nursed by mothers fed HP-(P less than 0.05) or HF-(P less than 0.01) diet. The binding of 125I-labelled wheat germ agglutinin and Ulex europeus agglutinin was in agreement to the data on sialic acid and fucose contents of the membranes. The binding of peanut agglutinin to microvillus membranes was enhanced by 31% and 21% in HP and HF groups, respectively. These findings suggest that the quality of maternal nutrition affects the enzymes and glycosylation of brush-borders in developing rat intestine.