Intestinal glucose transport in suckling rats fed artificial milk with and without added epidermal growth factor.

Epidermal growth factor (EGF), a potent mitogen present in milk, is postulated to play an important physiologic role in the ontogeny of the intestine. An artificial rat milk, free of EGF, was developed and fed to newborn rats in an effort to evaluate the physiologic role of EGF on intestinal glucose transport. Comparisons were made between mother-fed (group 1) and artificially fed pups (group 2). Group 1 was divided into two subgroups to received either the EGF vehicle (group 1-A) or twice daily subcutaneous injections (0.1 micrograms/g body weight/day) of EGF (group 1-B). Group 2 was divided into four subgroups: formula without EGF (group 2-A), formula with 62 ng/ml of EGF (group 2-B), formula with 200 ng/ml EGF (group 2-C), and formula without EGF but added anti-EGF IgG (40 ng/ml) plus subcutaneous injections of 1 micrograms anti-EGF twice daily (group 2-D). Treatment regimens were initiated on day 3 and assays performed on day 11 of life. Glucose transport was measured using gut "sheet" preparations in all but group 2-C, which utilized brush border membrane preparations. Group 1-B showed a significant (p less than 0.03) increase in gut length (47.5 +/- 1.2 versus 42 +/- 0.9 cm) and an increase (p less than 0.03) in both Vmax (10.2 +/- 0.5 versus 7.2 +/- 0.3 nM/mg tissue) and Km (2.74 +/- 0.49 versus 1.20 +/- 0.19 mM) compared to group 1-A.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)