Kinetics and balance of glucose and galactose appearance in the portal blood after intake of lactose or hydrolysed lactose in conscious pigs.

Five pigs (mean body weight: 66.2 kg) were fitted with portal and arterial catheters and an electromagnetic flow probe around the portal vein. One week after the surgical operation, each animal was successively fed, at 3-day intervals, with two experimental meals containing 392 g dry matter either from hydrolysed or non-hydrolysed lactose together with a protein-mineral-vitamin mixture (200 g). Portal and arterial blood concentrations of glucose, galactose and amino nitrogen were measured together with the portal blood flow rate during a postprandial period of 8 h after the intake of these experimental meals. Amounts of hexoses appearing in the portal blood after hydrolysed-lactose intake were 3- and 2-fold larger within 2 and 8 h, respectively, than after non-hydrolysed-lactose intake. Thus, enzymatic hydrolysis in the intestine is the limiting factor of lactose digestion in unadapted pigs. Whatever the type of lactose ingested, glucose appeared more rapidly and in larger amounts in the portal blood than galactose. After hydrolysed-lactose intake, the amount of glucose appearing in the portal blood exceeded the amount ingested already after 5 h. This means that a fraction of galactose was transformed into glucose during the transport by the enterocyte.