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Profile of Short-Chain Fatty Acids and Rectal Proliferation in Rats Fed Sucrose or Cornstarch Diets¹

Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy ^* Department of Food Technology and Microbiology, University of Milan, 20133 Milan, Italy

Rats were fed high fat (231 g/kg diet), low calcium (1.3 g/kg diet), low cellulose (20 g/kg diet) diets in which carbohydrates were represented by sucrose or starch (460 g/kg diet). A subgroup of animals was treated with 1,2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH) twice, 4 and 8 d before the beginning of the dietary treatments. Animals fed the starch diet, compared with those fed the sucrose diet, had higher concentrations of cecal and fecal short-chain fatty acids and a significantly lower acetic acid:butyric acid ratio in the cecal contents at d 105. Ratios were 14.7 ± 1.7 and 6.8 ± 0.4 for rats fed the sucrose and starch diets, respectively (P < 0.01). Cecal pH was significantly lower in animals fed the starch diet for 105 d. At d 105, rectal proliferation was lower in rats fed the starch diet (labeled cells/crypt were 7.89 ± 0.56 and 3.57 ± 0.40 for rats fed the sucrose and starch diets, respectively, P < 0.01); at d 30 the effect of starch on proliferation was evident in controls but not in DMH-treated rats. Rectal proliferation data were negatively correlated with the concentration and percentage of butyric acid and positively correlated with the percentage of acetic acid, the acetic acid:butyric acid ratio and cecal pH. These results suggest that low rectal proliferation in animals fed a high fat, high starch diet might be associated with a lower relative concentration of butyric acid in the cecal contents.

KEY WORDS: • short-chain fatty acids • proliferation • starch • rats • colon cancer

¹ Supported by grants from Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Finalizzato "RAISA," Progetto No. 4, Paper No. 23, and partially with funds from the Ministry of Public Instruction, Italy.

Manuscript received 26 November 1990. Revision accepted 18 July 1991.

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