Control of brush border enzymes by dexamethasone in the fetal rat intestine cultured in vitro.

The effect of dexamethasone (DX) on the prenatal maturation of rat intestinal brush border enzymes was studied in organ culture. Jejunal segments were explanted daily from day 17 of gestation until birth, as well as at different postnatal stages until day 6; they were cultured for 48 h with or without DX (8 X 10(-8) M). Enzymatic activities were analyzed on brush border membranes purified from cultured intestines and were compared with values from uncultured specimens. The results showed that DX elicited (a) a precocious induction of sucrase activity in the jejunum explanted from 19 days of gestation onward, reaching a peak value when taken at birth; (b) a stimulation of maltase activity in the segments explanted as soon as day 18, leading to maximal values when taken at day 20, the stage at which the stimulated activity reached a 6.5-fold increase over the baseline activity; and (c) an increase of lactase activity comparable to that occurring in utero. As opposed to this, DX has no specific action on alkaline phosphatase and aminopeptidase activities. The present data indicate that glucocorticoids directly and specifically influence the prenatal maturation of some brush border enzymes in the mammalian gut.