Precocious increase of sucrase activity by carbohydrates in the small intestine of suckling rats. I. Significance of the stress effect of sugar-induced diarrhea.

In this paper, we analyze the factors involved in the precocious increase of sucrase activity evoked by the early feeding of sucrose in suckling rats, and particularly, the role of diarrhea and stress in this phenomenon. Ten-day-old rats were removed from their mothers and gavage fed for 4 days at 3-h intervals either a basic low carbohydrate milk formula (10.8% fat, 8% protein, 1.4% carbohydrate; all by weight/volume) or basic low carbohydrate milk with: lactose (13%), fructose (13%), or Polycose (2%, 6%, or 13%); all formulas were isocaloric. Feeding the formula containing fructose or high (13%) Polycose led to diarrhea and evoked a concurrent increase of small intestinal sucrase activity. In further experiments, 11-day-old rats were fed the basic formula, the lactose (13%), the fructose (13%), and a sucrose (13%) formula for 8 h between 2 a.m. and 10 a.m. Also, 10-day-old rats were fed 0.5 ml of a solution of 5% mannitol in water while nursing with their mothers. The serum corticosterone levels were substantially increased within 8 h after the initiation of feedings with sucrose and fructose milks and the mannitol solution. The mannitol-fed rats also developed diarrhea within a day in association with a marked increase in sucrase activity. We conclude that a precocious increase of sucrase activity in the small intestine of suckling rats by dietary sugars is not caused by substrate induction, but is mainly due to the effect of stress. The stress is caused by diarrhea which is evoked by the feeding of indigestible and/or unabsorbable amounts of sugar.