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Somatotropin Transgenic Mice Have Reduced Jejunal Active Glucose Transport Rates^1,2,3,

Department of Animal Science ^* Department of Zoology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7621

Small intestinal glucose absorption and gastrointestinal morphology were compared in adult bovine somatotropin transgenic (MT-bGH) and control mice. The MT-bGH mice were 57% heavier than controls, although both groups consumed comparable amounts of food during the 5 d before transport measurements were made. Stomach, cecum and colon were 98, 53, and 81% heavier (P < 0.001), and small intestinal tract 52% heavier and 27% longer in MT-bGH than in control mice (P < 0.001). As a proportion of live weight, MT-bGH mice tended to have a shorter small intestine than controls (P < 0.07), whereas there was no difference for either small or large bowel relative weights. Villus dimensions, crypt depth and thickness of external muscle layers in the jejunum were not significantly different in control and MT-bGH mice. Active glucose transport rate per milligram of jejunum was 24% less than in control mice (P < 0.05). Jejunal active glucose transport rate per gram of live weight in MT-bGH mice was approximately half that of control mice. The larger small intestinal mass of MT-bGH mice compensated for the reduced rate of glucose transport per unit weight of intestine such that there was no significant difference in total small intestinal tract glucose transport between control and MT-bGH mice. These results suggest that there are substantial differences in nutrient absorptive efficiency between intestinal tract from MT-bGH and control mice.

KEY WORDS: • transgenic • absorption • mice • somatotropin • small intestine

¹ The use of trade names in this publication does not imply endorsement by the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service of the products named or similar ones not mentioned.

² A. R. Bird is a recipient of an Australian Wool Research and Promotion Organization Postgraduate Research Scholarship and supported in part by the Department of Primary Industries, Queensland, Australia.

³ The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 USC section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

⁴ To whom correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed.

Manuscript received 15 November 1993. Revision accepted 17 May 1994.