Alterations in gastrointestinal contents induced by elemental diets

✍ Scribed by John R. Stanford; Leona W. Ayers; J. Frederick Cornhill; Larry C. Carey; James W. Kilman; William G. Pace; John S. Vasko

• Book ID: 102440406
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1979
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 157 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-4790
• DOI: 10.1002/jso.2930120210

✦ Synopsis

The effects of elemental diets on selected aspects of the rat colon were studied.

Forty young male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into 4 diet groups of 10 rats each: Purina Rat Chow (control); Flexical; Precision L-R; and Vivonex. All diets were fed ad lib t o rats housed in pairs in wire-bottom cages. Two weeks after weight stabilization had been achieved all rats were killed and colon contents were collected for culture and short-chain fatty acid analysis on the Perkins-Elsoner 3920 gas chromatograph. Colon fecal butyric/acetic acid ratios of the rats in the 4 groups were: Rat Chow, 2.56; Flexical, 0.28; Precision L-R, 0.1 6; and Vivonex, 0.26. Bacterial cultures showed increased coliform and enterococcal species in the rats consuming elemental diets.