[14] Vascular autoperfusion of rat small intestine in situ

Publisher Summary There is a growing awareness that the small intestine may be an important site for the metabolism of drugs and other foreign compounds. Because of the lack of adequate methods, however, the quantitative importance of the intestine's role in whole body drug metabolism in vivo has been more difficult to assess. Vascular perfusion techniques are well suited for providing such information. They permit study of the intact organ under nearly normal physiological conditions while allowing access to the lumen, the arterial and venous circulation, and the lymphatic drainage. In one technique, the entire small intestine of a rat can be removed en bloc and vascularly perfused in a recycling system with heparinized or defibrinated blood. A second approach, simpler and more normal physiologically, is the vascular autoperfusion of a segment of the small intestine in situ. In this approach, the arterial, neural, and lymphatic connections of the segment remain intact while the venous effluent is totally collected. The collected blood is replaced by a continuous transfusion, into a saphenous vein, of heparinized blood obtained from other donor rats. With appropriate adaptations, this technique allows for nearly the entire range of experimentation possible with the isolated preparation.