Effects of wheat-flour and oat mill fractions on jejunal flow, starch degradation and absorption of glucose over an isolated loop of jejunum in pigs

Abstract

The effect of cereal-based diets varying in dietary fibre (DF) on gastric emptying and glucose absorption over an isolated loop of jejunum was studied in four pigs fitted with two sets of re-entrant cannulas. The pigs were fed on either a wheat-flour diet or three diets based on oat flour (endosperm), rolled oats or oat bran containing different amounts of soluble DF. Mean transit time (MTT) of liquid estimated from the output from the first jejunal cannula was significantly higher with the two diets having the highest DF content, but MTT of dry matter (DM), starch, xylose and neutral non-starch polysaccharides (nNSP) was not correlated directly to the DF content of the diet. DF had a stimulatory effect on secretion of gastrointestinal juices, but the effect was not linearly correlated with the DF content of the diet. Starch was significantly degraded in digesta collected within 30 min after feeding with malto-oligosaccharides accounting for 140–147 g/kg total starch. The degradation was more extensive with higher DF and lower starch content of the diet. However, taking into account the differences in jejunal flow, the amount of malto-oligosaccharides available for absorption in the first 0.5 h decreased with higher levels of DF in the oat-based diets. The absorption of glucose from the isolated loop was 18–34 g/m intestine over an 8 h period with no significant differences between diets. This corresponded to a non-significant decrease in recovery of starch from 0.91 to 0.82 with increasing levels of DF and decreasing levels of starch in the diet. This suggests that the capacity for absorption of large doses of starch entering the proximal small intestine after ingestion of a carbohydrate-rich cereal-based diet has a major influence on the absorption at this site. Consequently any effect of DF on glucose absorption may be exerted either through the rate of gastric emptying or by impaired rate of absorption more distal in the small intestine and not by displacement of the site for starch absorption.