Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Gut logoLink to Gut
. 1992 Jun;33(6):794–800. doi: 10.1136/gut.33.6.794

Vitamin A deficiency and colonic electrogenic absorption and secretion in the rat.

H C Nzegwu 1, R J Levin 1
PMCID: PMC1379339  PMID: 1352514

Abstract

The effects of vitamin A deficiency on electrogenic transport in the colon were examined in rats made vitamin A deficient at weaning by feeding a vitamin A deficient diet for 40 days. A pair fed control group was given the same diet but supplemented with soluble vitamin A in their drinking water. The basal and stimulated electrogenic secretory and absorptive functions of the muscle stripped proximal, mid, and distal colon were examined in vitro using the short circuit current (Isc) as the index of net ion transport. A significant increase in the basal and secretory Isc (mainly Cl-ions) induced by the cholinergic agonist bethanechol was observed in the mid-colon of the vitamin A deficient rats. In the distal colon, however, vitamin A deficiency caused a significant reduction in both the basal and secretory Isc response to bethanechol compared with the vitamin A supplemented pair fed control. Secretory Isc induced by dibutyryl cyclic adenosine monophosphate was not significantly altered by vitamin A deficiency. The condition abolished the response of the distal colon to luminal amiloride (0.1 mmol/l). Thyroid hormone induced reduction in the distal colonic response to aldosterone is implicated in this lack of response. This is the first experimental linkage between vitamin A action, the thyroid hormone and aldosterone on colonic function. The colonic changes induced by vitamin A deficiency, namely hypersecretion and a reduced electrogenic distal absorptive function, together with the previously described small intestine hypersecretion may be the underlying basis for the diarrhoea observed in human and animal vitamin A deficiency.

Full text

PDF
794

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Binder H. J., White A., Whiting D., Hayslett J. Demonstration of specific high affinity receptors for aldosterone in cytosol of rat colon. Endocrinology. 1986 Feb;118(2):628–631. doi: 10.1210/endo-118-2-628. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Edmonds C. J., Willis C. L. Aldosterone and thyroid hormone interaction on the sodium and potassium transport pathways of rat colonic epithelium. J Endocrinol. 1990 Jan;124(1):47–52. doi: 10.1677/joe.0.1240047. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Garcin H., Higueret P. Thyroid hormones in vitamin A-deficient rats: effect of retinoic acid supplementation. Ann Nutr Metab. 1983;27(6):495–500. doi: 10.1159/000176725. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Halevy J., Budinger M. E., Hayslett J. P., Binder H. J. Role of aldosterone in the regulation of sodium and chloride transport in the distal colon of sodium-depleted rats. Gastroenterology. 1986 Nov;91(5):1227–1233. doi: 10.1016/s0016-5085(86)80021-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Morley J. E., Damassa D. A., Gordon J., Pekary A. E., Hershman J. M. Thyroid function and vitamin A deficiency. Life Sci. 1978 Jun 5;22(21):1901–1905. doi: 10.1016/0024-3205(78)90477-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Nobles M., Diener M., Mestres P., Rummel W. Segmental heterogeneity of the rat colon in the response to activators of secretion on the cAMP-, the cGMP- and the Ca(2+)-pathway. Acta Physiol Scand. 1991 Jul;142(3):375–386. doi: 10.1111/j.1748-1716.1991.tb09171.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Nzegwu H. C., Levin R. J. Dietary restriction sensitizes the rat distal colon to aldosterone. J Physiol. 1992 Feb;447:501–512. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1992.sp019014. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Nzegwu H., Levin R. J. Vitamin A deficiency and small intestinal secretory function in the rat. Gut. 1991 Nov;32(11):1324–1328. doi: 10.1136/gut.32.11.1324. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Theodorsson-Norheim E. Kruskal-Wallis test: BASIC computer program to perform nonparametric one-way analysis of variance and multiple comparisons on ranks of several independent samples. Comput Methods Programs Biomed. 1986 Aug;23(1):57–62. doi: 10.1016/0169-2607(86)90081-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Thompson B. D., Edmonds C. J. Aldosterone, sodium depletion and hypothyroidism on the ATPase activity of rat colonic epithelium. J Endocrinol. 1974 Sep;62(3):489–496. doi: 10.1677/joe.0.0620489. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Umesono K., Giguere V., Glass C. K., Rosenfeld M. G., Evans R. M. Retinoic acid and thyroid hormone induce gene expression through a common responsive element. Nature. 1988 Nov 17;336(6196):262–265. doi: 10.1038/336262a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. West K. P., Jr, Howard G. R., Sommer A. Vitamin A and infection: public health implications. Annu Rev Nutr. 1989;9:63–86. doi: 10.1146/annurev.nu.09.070189.000431. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Young A., Levin R. J. Diarrhoea of famine and malnutrition: investigations using a rat model. 1. Jejunal hypersecretion induced by starvation. Gut. 1990 Jan;31(1):43–53. doi: 10.1136/gut.31.1.43. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Young A., Levin R. J. Segmental heterogeneity of rat colonic electrogenic secretion in response to the bacterial enterotoxin Escherichia coli STa in vitro. Exp Physiol. 1991 Nov;76(6):979–982. doi: 10.1113/expphysiol.1991.sp003561. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Gut are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES