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To evaluate physicochemical properties of the small intestinal basolateral cell surface during postnatal development, membranes were isolated from suckling (14-17 days) and weanling-mature (35-49 days) rabbit jejunal and ileal enterocytes at 30- to 40-fold purification (based on Na+-K+-ATPase specific activity) and with limited contamination from coisolated cellular elements. Membrane lipid analysis demonstrated age-dependent reductions and proximal to distal increases in total lipid (per milligram protein). Postnatal increases in membrane total cholesterol of jejunum (suckling vs. mature, 0.18 vs. 0.26 mumol/mg protein; P less than 0.01) and ileum (0.18 vs. 0.31 mumol/mg protein; P less than 0.01) resulted in markedly higher cholesterol-to-phospholipid molar ratios (jejunum, 0.43 vs. 0.73; ileum, 0.43 vs. 0.72 mumol/mg protein; P less than 0.01). Membranes from mature animals had higher relative sphingomeylin and phosphatidylcholine content and, in both age groups, fatty acyl saturation was increased in ileum compared with jejunum. By utilization of the fluorophores 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene and DL-12-(9-anthroyl)stearic acid, the fluidity of basolateral membranes and liposomes prepared from extracted membrane lipid decreased markedly in mature rabbits. Arrhenius plots demonstrated higher apparent thermotropic transition temperatures of mature membrane lipid. These data therefore demonstrate significant changes in small intestinal basolateral membrane lipid composition and fluidity that occur during the weaning period. Possible relationships to ontogenesis of membrane protein function are discussed.

To evaluate the role of artificial feeding and natural feeding in early growth of enteric mucosa, we determined enteric mucosal mass, protein and DNA content, and disaccharidase activities in beagle puppies at birth, and after 24 h of either natural or artificial feeding. Despite similar increases in body weight over the first 24 h of life, neither mucosal mass, DNA content, nor protein content of the artificially fed animals was different from that of newborn animals. In contrast, mucosal mass of the suckled animals was 75% greater, DNA content was 56% greater, and protein content was 93% greater than that of newborn animals. The mucosal protein/DNA ratio of the suckled animals was greater than that of newborn, but not artificially fed animals. The greater DNA, protein, and protein/DNA ratio in this group suggest that the greater mucosal mass is a result of both cellular hyperplasia and hypertrophy. Sucrase specific activity of the suckled animals was less than that of the artificially fed but not the newborn animals. Other disaccharidase activities were not different among the three groups. These data extend the findings of Widdowson et al.(25) to another species and demonstrate that this rapid enteric growth over the first day of life results only from natural feeding. They strongly suggest, therefore, that rapid early enteric growth, mediated perhaps by a factor in natural milk that stimulates enteric mucosal growth, is an important heretofore unappreciated phase of intestinal development.

Structural and functional properties of the small intestinal microvillus membrane were evaluated in the rabbit after administration of ethinyl estradiol, a synthetic estrogen with a demonstrated propensity to alter hepatic membrane lipid fluidity, and promote cholestasis. In the jejunum, no estrogen-induced changes in microvillus membrane total lipid, cholesterol or phospholipid content were observed. However, the ileal microvillus membrane in estradiol-treated animals demonstrates significant reductions vs. controls (per mg protein) in total lipid (0.55 milligrams vs. 0.89 milligrams) [corrected] and phospholipid (206.7 micrograms vs. 304.91 micrograms) (p less than 0.001) content, as well as modifications in specific phospholipid species. The increase in the ileal microvillus membrane cholesterol: phospholipid molar ratio (0.65 vs. 0.51, p less than 0.05) was associated with a significant decrease in membrane lipid fluidity reflected by an increase in fluorescence anisotropy measurements utilizing diphenyl hexatriene as the fluorophore (r at 25 degrees C = 0.306 vs. 0.282, p less than 0.05). Thermotropic lipid phase transitions, assessed by Arrhenius plots of both fluorescence data and ileal microvillus membrane p-nitrophenylphosphatase activity demonstrate that phase changes occur between and 24 and 28 degrees C in both treated and untreated groups. Within the temperature range studied (40-10 degrees C) no differences from control were observed in microvillus membrane alkaline phosphatase activity following estrogen treatment. These data therefore indicate that ethinyl estradiol-induced effects on microvillus membrane lipid composition and physical properties occur predominantly in the ileum and appear to be related, in part, to specific alterations in the availability of phospholipid following estrogen treatment.