[Effect of food deprivation on the absorption of chick ovalbumin in adult guinea pigs].

A study was made of the effect of complete alimentary fasting of varying duration on barrier permeability of the gastrointestinal tract for chick ovalbumin (OA). Guinea-pigs which fasted for 96, 48 and 12 (control) hours were fed intragastrically 300 mg chick ovalbumin in saline, and after 3 hours immunoreactive OA was measured in blood serum by competitive radioimmunoassay. It was established that fasting of the animals for 96 h led to a significant increase in unchanged food antigen uptake by systemic circulation. The similar increase of OA intake after 48 h of fasting was insignificant. The data obtained can be explained in terms of a decrease in protease activity and inhibition of amino acid uptake by the intestinal epithelium under complete alimentary fasting.