Development maturation of riboflavin intestinal transport in the rat.

The intestinal transport of riboflavin in the immature intestine of the suckling rat (14 day old) and its subsequent maturation in weanling (22 day old) and adult (90 day old) rats were investigated using the intestinal everted sac technique. The mucosal-to-serosal transport of 0.5 microM riboflavin was linear with time for 30-min incubation and occurred at a rate of 4.6, 3.6, and 1.6 pmol/g initial tissue wet wt/min in suckling, weanling, and adult rats, respectively. The transport of 0.5 microM riboflavin was higher in the jejunum than the ileum in all age groups. The transport system of riboflavin in all age groups was saturable, energy-, temperature-, and Na+-dependent. Kinetic parameters of the transport process were different. Apparent Kt of the transport process was the same in suckling and weanling rats (0.12 and 0.11 microM, respectively) but tripled in adult rats (0.35 microM). On the other hand, a progressive decrease in Vmax from 166 to 122 to 54 pmol/g initial tissue wet weight/30 min was observed in the suckling, weanling, and adult rats, respectively. The present study demonstrates that the characteristics of the transport process of riboflavin is similar in suckling, weanling, and adult rats and occurs by an energy-, temperature-, and Na+-dependent carrier-mediated process. However, the affinity and the activity (or the number) of the transport carriers of riboflavin decrease with maturation.