Effects of dietary intake of sodium chloride on sugar and amino acid transport across isolated hen colon.

1. Using the isolated mucosa from the colon of the adult hen, transport of galactose, leucine and lysine was studied through measurements of influx across the brush-border membrane, unidirectional transmucosal fluxes, and of steady-state mucosal uptake.2. In hens maintained on a NaCl rich diet influx of galactose, leucine and lysine were saturable processes with well defined values for J(max) and K(t). All three substances were actively transported across the epithelium and accumulated in the mucosal tissues to steady-state concentrations several times higher than in the incubation media.3. In hens maintained on a NaCl poor diet the K(t) of the leucine influx was markedly increased and the J(max) moderately decreased, while the epithelium maintained the capability of active transepithelial transport and of establishing a steady-state tissue/medium distribution ratio well above 1. Galactose and lysine could no longer be actively transported and in the steady state their tissue concentrations did not exceed those of the medium.4. It is proposed that in the low NaCl colon the processes of galactose and lysine co-transport with Na are abolished and that the transport of galactose proceeds via a phloretin sensitive system like that described for the enterocyte of the chicken small intestine.5. In the high NaCl colon 1 mM-leucine increases the mucosa to serosa flux of lysine by a factor 2.8 without affecting the serosa to mucosa flux or the steady-state mucosal accumulation of lysine. In the low NaCl colon 1 mM-leucine induces active transepithelial transport of lysine. Assuming that the active transport of leucine is secondary to the transport of Na, leucine-induced active transport of lysine is described as a tertiary active transport.6. In the high NaCl colon the mucosa to serosa flux and the steady-state mucosal accumulation of leucine were inhibited by galactose which had no effect on leucine influx across the brush-border membrane. Leucine did not affect any of the parameters of galactose transport.