Intestinal digestion of dipeptides in experimental diabetes in the rat.

Intestinal digestion of two dipeptides, leucyl-leucine and phenylalanyl glycine was studied in vivo in diabetic and control rats utilizing the segmental perfusion technique. Both proximal and distal segments of the small intestine were perfused with 20 mM of each substrate with 140 mM NaCl and 0.5% polyethylene glycol. There was no statistically significant difference in the rates of luminal disappearance (hydrolysis) of the two dipeptides between the control and diabetic animals.