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Incidence of Increased Numbers of Clostridium perfringens in the Intestinal Tract of Rats Fed Xylitol1

Marleen M. Wekell2, Wilburta J. Hartman and Faye M. Dong3

School of Nutritional Sciences, Mailstop DL-10, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195

Sprague-Dawley rats were fed diets containing up to 20% xylitol for 49 days. When the rats were fed a xylitol regimen intended to produce adaptation to xylitol, approximately half of the animals adapted to xylitol and remained free from diarrhea during the feeding regimen. The other half did not adapt to xylitol and developed severe and persistent diarrhea accompanied by large volumes of intestinal gas. These non-adapted rats had significantly higher levels of intestinal tract Clostridium perfringens (106–1011 organisms per gram intestinal contents) than did control rats fed a xylitol-free cornstarch diet (0–104 organisms per gram). Rats adapted to dietary xylitol did not have detectable levels of C. perfringens in the gastrointestinal tract.

KEY WORDS: • dietary xylitol • Clostridium perfringens • diarrhea • gastrointestinal tract

1 Supported in part by the Graduate School Research Fund (PHS Biomedical Research Support Grant No. RR-07906) and the University of Washington Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Institute. Portions of this study have been presented at the 79th Annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, Los Angeles, CA, 4–8 May 1979 (Wekell, M. M., Hartman, W. J. & Dong, F. M. Apparent selection for the growth of Clostridium perfringens in rat intestine by dietary xylitol).

2 To whom reprint requests should be sent.

3 Present address: Department of Biochemistry, Mailstop SJ-70, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195.

Manuscript received 31 January 1980.




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