Effect of a single oral dose of endosulfan on intestinal uptake of nutrients and on brush-border enzymes in rats.

The effect of a single oral dose of endosulfan (5 mg/kg body weight) on the uptake of certain nutrients and brush-border enzymes has been studied in rat intestine. The uptake of glucose and alanine was elevated but that of leucine was decreased in endosulfan-fed rats. There was no change in the uptake of phenylalanine and lysine in insecticide-fed rats. The activities of brush-border sucrase and alkaline phosphatase were considerably increased while the activity of Na+ K+ ATPase was reduced in endosulfan-exposed animals. The leucine aminopeptidase activity was unaffected in pesticide-treated rats. There was a significant decrease in cellular LDH and GOT activities with no change in GPT activity. Neither was there a considerable increase in the cellular glucose-6-phosphatase activity (P less than 0.01) in the pesticide-fed rats. These results suggest that endosulfan toxicity induces certain functional changes in the intestine.