Significance of Cecectomized Rats in NutritionalStudies Ei SAKAGUCHI Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, Faculty ofAgriculture, Okayama University Rats have an enlarged cecum to be considered as anadaptive structure to variable food quality. The cecum plays animportant role to utilize indigestible and fermentable foodmaterials in the rat. Cecectomy results in faster transit ofdigesta connecting lower digestibilities of food components in therat. The response of the transit and retention of digesta to thefeeding of indigestible food materials is similar to that in human,where the inverse response is often recognized in normal rats,suggesting that cecectomized rats are useful in the studyconcerning digesta movement in the gut. Some of nutritional andphysiological effects of dietary fiber and fermentable foodcomponents are extinguished by cecectomy. Some inverse results areobtained in the rats with or without cecum in the nutritional andphysiological studies. Fermentation in the large gut is modifiedlargely by cecectomy. Although the cecectomized rat has somepossibilities as a useful experimental animal, there is alimitation to use the cecectomized rat as an experimental animal inthe study of the function of fermentable food materials. Furthercomparative studies are needed in the functions of the digestivetract between human and the cecectomized rat for the strictqualification of the usefulness in human nutrition studies.
Key words: cecum, gut ferrnentation, digesta flow, cecectomizedrat |
Return
|
